CONTENTdm
British Columbia Historical Books Collection
The makers of Canada [Parkman edition]
McIlwraith, Jean N. (Jean Newton), 1859-1938
"Contents: ... vol. 8. Bryce, G. MacKenzie, Selkirk, Simpson. 1905 .... vol.20. Coats, RH. and Gosnell, R.E. Sir James Douglas. 1908.- vol.21. Doughty, A.G. Index and dictionary. 1911."-- Strathern, G. M., & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 191
356 pages : frontispiece ; 23 cm
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THE MAKERS OF CANADA VOL. VI SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND "What was he then? Whence, how? And what did he achieve and suffer in the World?"—Carlylt. THE MAKERS OF CANADA SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND! BY JEAN N. McILWRAITH 1 TORONTO MORANG & CO., LIMITED 1909 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year IdOh by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agricultwre n~i 3/4. /fof CONTENTS CHAPTER I Page A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 1 CHAPTER II WITH THE ROYAL AMERICANS 11 CHAPTER III HALDIMAND GOES TO CANADA 81 CHAPTER IV MILITARY RULE AT THREE RIVERS 41 CHAPTER V SIX YEARS IN FLORIDA 63 CHAPTER VI COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT NEW YORK .... 88 CHAPTER Vn FROM NEW TO OLD ENGLAND 101 THE GENERAL THE UPPER POSTS THE GOVERNOR CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X Page 121 145 . 173 CHAPTER XI THE VERMONT AFFAIR. CHAPTER XII AUTRES TEMPS, AUTRES MCEURS . 197 . 219 CHAPTER XIII THE LOYALISTS 249 CHAPTER XIV HIS EXCELLENCY'S ENEMIES * 273 CHAPTER XV HIS FRIENDS 293 CHAPTER XVI HIS RELICS . 319 INDEX . 349 CHAPTER 1 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE ) ONE hundred and ten years ago there died in Switzerland a gentleman who had been born there some seventy odd years before, and who had come back to end a life more varied and eventful than most, within sight of the lakes and mountains of his native land. This was Sir Frederick Hal- dimand, sometime lieutenant-colonel in the Royal American regiment, military governor of Three Rivers, commander of the southern district in North America, commander-in-chief at New York, and governor-general of Canada. To have an ancestor with the prefix HonnSte to his name is no mean distinction, for the soubriquets " prudent," " learned," " magnificent," " very honourable," "generous," "much feared," etc., so plentifully besprinkled throughout European nomenclature of the eighteenth century had generally some foundation in fact. That Frederick Haldi- mand's grandfather should be known as "straightforward" bespeaks for himself a patient hearing. He may be prolix, he will never be untrue. There is a tradition that the family was originally French Huguenot, driven into Switzerland by religious persecution; but of certainty it is known 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND only that Honn£te Gaspard Haldimand migrated from Thun, and on April 1st, 1671, took up his abode at Yverdun, a tiny town directly north of Lausanne, at the southwestern corner of Lake Neuchatel. He was charged fifteen florins a year merely as resident, and not at once admitted to the full dignity of citizenship. Swiss communities then, as now, did not bestow their municipal privileges excepting upon those able to pay for them, with the further requirement that applicants be of good character. After a residence of twenty- three years, Honn&te Gaspard having demonstrated his right to his name, paid down two thousand florins and wine, was received as a citizen, and his descendants inherited the distinction without question, wherever they might live or die. He had four sons, Francois-Lois, the father of our Sir Frederick, Barthelemi, Jean-Lois and Gaspard, junior. We may say adieu to Frederick's uncles, as he did himself at an early age, remarking only that Lieutenant Barthelemi was a bachelor and a philanthropic fighting Calvinist, while Sieur Gaspard travelled in foreign lands and was a person of importance, or his lady wife would not have been given "the pew which she desired in the church near the clock tower, in which to sit with her daughters." To Francois-Lois Haldimand and Marie Made- laine de Trytorrens, his wife, there were born four sons, Emmanuel, Frederick, Jean-Abraham, Fran- 2 A SWISS TOWN cois-Louis, and one daughter, Justine. Frederick was born on August 11th, 1718, in the Canton of Neuchatel, and by the time he was ten years old, his father, a notary, was justice of the peace in Yverdun, and continued in that position till 1737. Vaud in the eighteenth century was not an independent canton, but subject to Berne and the Vaudois gentry, and thus shut out from the civil service, cultivated science, art and literature. Lausanne became a centre for savants, a peaceful cosmopolitan resort where men like Gibbon, Fox, Raynal and Voltaire, inspired by the glorious scenery, could evolve ideas destined to move the world. Yverdun was but a small place of two thousand inhabitants and about three hundred houses, but its upper classes exhibited the culture, hospitality and refined manners characteristic of the canton, and doubtless many distinguished foreigners found their way there in Frederick's boyhood. The French language and French fashions prevailed, but he had no love for the French nation, and was never found fighting under its banner. Neuchatel, his native canton, had been forced to place herself beneath the protection of Prussia as a defence against the encroachment of Louis XIV., and the early antagonism thus instilled may have been one reason that Frederick was drawn into the army of his royal namesake. The Haldimand family must have been of good standing or the youth could not have obtained 8 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND a commission in any European army. There would be no other career open to him at that time and in that country, unless he chose to follow the example of his cousin Samuel, Jean-Lois' son, a student at Leyden, who died in Paris while on his way home from the university. But Frederick preferred an active life. With an elder brother to leave at home, wrhy should he not launch out upon the unknown ? He must have had the early education and training of a gentleman, for such is not to be gained in camps, though frequently forgotten there. Is it an ignoble thing to embrace the military profession from any other motive than love of one's own country ? The Swiss and the Scotch Highlanders, rivals in patriotism, have not thought so. Kilted regiments of the British army have left their mark upon every quarter of the globe, while Swiss mercenaries in the eighteenth century formed a vital auxiliary to almost every army in Europe. Switzerland showed wisdom in permitting and encouraging her sons to take service with her powerful neighbours, and thus gain military experience at their expense. There she was, hemmed in on one side by France, on the other by Austria, with Sardinia on the south, and on her northern borders those restless German states, not yet dreaming of consolidation into an empire. The central parts of Europe were being moved about like chessmen in the hands of royal players. Who could tell when Switzerland's turn for dismemberment 4 EARLY MILITARY SERVICE would come ? When it should arrive she could recall her wandering soldiers to her standard, not rustics from the plough, but veterans, trained by the best masters of the time. Frederick Haldimand was fifteen years of age when, after comparative tranquillity for a generation, the continent began to seethe with the wars that continued throughout his life, the peace of 1748 being only a truce. There is no evidence to show in what military service he first engaged, but it is generally supposed he entered as a cadet into the army of Charles Emmanuel, king of Sardinia, whose Italian possessions lay directly to the south of Switzerland. Like his fellow-countryman and life-long friend, Henry Bouquet, it is possible he enlisted with the States General of Holland, and passed thence into the Sardinian service. " An adventurous, fighting kind of man," Carlyle calls Charles Emmanuel, but he was also a man of ability, and successfully directed the operations of the fine army left him by his father, bringing it into a further state of efficiency, and turning its face this way or that, according as Sardinian interests dictated. In the war of the Polish succession, he began by siding with the Bourbons against Austria, but when he feared Spain was growing too powerful in Italy and he was likely to be left at her mercy and that of France, he adroitly turned his back on his allies and joined Maria Theresa in her fight for her kingdom. The "door-keeper of the 5 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Alps," he was called, and who more fitted to serve under him than Swiss mountaineers ? Henry Bouquet was a year younger than Frederick Haldimand, and they would likely be lads of seventeen and eighteen when they began their military career; the latter mentions that he was an officer at twenty-one. Henry went from Sardinia back to Holland, but his friend is next heard of in the army of Frederick the Great. Young Haldimand was present at the battle of Mollwitz in 1741, an eye witness to the terrific onslaught of thirty squadrons of Austrian horse upon Frederick's ten, and of the resulting panic and retreat of the Prussian right wing. He would see the day, that was seemingly lost, won for the king of Prussia by the infantry his father had trained for him, standing like a stone wall to receive the Austrian fire, and the "bottled whirlwind" of their cavalry charge, giving back five shots for one. Subalterns are not prone to enter deeply into the right or wrong of the struggles in which they engage, and Haldimand would not be likely to criticize the ethics of Frederick's Silesian campaign; but he had a great admiration for him, both as monarch and man, and to the end of his life spoke affectionately of the king of Prussia as " my old master." He may have been with him from his accession till the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which time Prussia had emerged from obscurity into the position of a first-class power whose army 6 1 im EARLY MANHOOD was looked upon as the best fighting machine in Europe. Sardinia too had lost nothing but gained much during her protracted contest, and from both his royal teachers the young soldier would learn that the end often justifies the means and that an amiable despot is an altogether admirable sort of ruler. His early manhood fell upon a time when old things were rapidly passing away and all things were becoming new. The voice of the people, then beginning to be heard, was to grow in volume and fierceness till it became the wild scream of the French revolution* Kings were turned reformers and for their chief support they looked past the aristocratic classes to the army, and the army was drawn from the masses. While Frederick the Great was adding Silesia to his domains, Holland was having internal troubles which terminated in 1747 with a revolution that overthrew the aristocratic party and placed William of Orange at the head of affairs. The new Stadtholder never rested till he had secured the succession to his son; and with the view of protecting himself from the republicans, should occasion arise, he incorporated a regiment of Swiss Guards. "Why Swiss, instead of your own nationality?" we may ask of the Prince of Orange, as of King Louis in the" French revolution. The answer comes from the mercenaries who defended the Tuileries in 1792, and after the escape of their royal master 7 m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND were massacred to a man:—"We are Swiss, and the Swiss never surrender their arms but with their lives."1 Steadfast, trustworthy, not to be caught on the wave of any sudden revolution, small blame to the Stadtholder, with uneasy seat on his throne, who wanted Swiss guards at the Hague. This was the corps in which both Haldimand and Bouquet were registered in 1750, as captains commandant, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and they may have joined at its formation, two years before. A change it would be from the stirring marches and counter marches with the Great Frederick, from the high countries to the low; and Haldimand was a nature-lover. Did he ever tire of the flat fields, the canals and windmills of Holland and sigh for his mountains, or did he lead the ordinary life of a gay young officer at the Dutch court? Who shall tell us ? Certainly not Bouquet, up to his eyes in the study of mathematics and all that pertained to the science of warfare. What Henry is 1 Haldimand's diary, May 29th, 1790:—"Met Sir Henry Clinton with whom I took a walk. He told me that the Duke of Gloucester was much inclined that England should take Swiss troops into its service. I showed him the inconvenience which would arise from the capitulation of Swiss troops, which he did not know, etc." May 16th, 1787. "The Count de Linden.... wished to convince me that Duke Louis was an enemy to the Swiss and wanted to persuade the members of the republic to dismiss them in order to take German troops in their place as they would be cheaper, but that the Dutch had too much confidence in the Swiss to give in to these ideas, which would fill Holland with German princes and counts." 8 THE ROYAL AMERICANS known to have done, it is probable his friend Frederick did also, and neither would be likely to lose any opportunity for adding to his professional knowledge. Just before the beginning of the Seven Years' war, when England was preparing for her final struggle with the Bourbons for colonial and commercial supremacy, the attention of her ministers was directed to the number of Swiss and German Protestants who had taken up lands in her colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. They had not mixed with their neighbours, nor even learned the English language, but numbered many strong, hardy young fellows, admirably adapted by hereditary feeling for fighting the French. A fine regiment they would make, and though the colonel must be a natural born subject of Great Britain, the subordinate officers should be foreign Protestants of tried metal, familiar with the German language. The Duke of Cumberland was interested in the scheme, and to him his former aide-de-camp, Sir Joseph Yorke, then British minister at the Hague, recommended as the best men he knew for commands in the new Royal American regiment, lieutenant-Colonels Frederick Haldimand and Henry Bouquet. The two hesitated about accepting the offered positions, as the colonel under whom they were asked to serve in America held lower rank than their own in Europe, but the representations 9 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND of Sir Joseph Yorke, that they would be placed on an equality with the colonel commandant, carried the day. In 1754, the two Swiss soldiers of fortune were transferred from the service of the Prince of Orange to that of his father-in-law and ally, George the Second. They induced subordinate officers to accompany them and set sail for America, buoyed up by the hope of getting once more into active service after the stagnation at the Hague, and of seeing for themselves that wonderland of the west, full of possibilities for active and ambitious men. 10 CHAPTER II WITH THE ROYAL AMERICANS m IT is recorded that upon June 15th, 1756, there were forty German officers landed at New York to take commissions in Lord Loudoun's regiment of Royal Americans, which it was proposed should number 4,000 men, divided into four battalions. Colonel Haldimand's command was at Philadelphia, a town already showing symptoms of the spirit which was to reach its height a score of years later. The colony of Pennsylvania was nearer than her neighbours to independence, disposing of her%public monies as she saw fit, grudging the support of her royal governor, and refusing to establish militia or to vote funds for the proper maintenance of frontier garrisons. Loudoun's letter to Pitt is ominous: "The majority of the assembly is composed of Quakers; whilst that is the case they will always oppose every measure of government, and support that independence which is deep- rooted everywhere in this country. The taxes which the people pay are really so trifling that they do not deserve the name; so that if some method is not found by laying on a tax for the support of a war in America by a British act of parliament, it appears to me that you will continue to have 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND no assistance from them in money, and will have little in men if they are wanted." A marvellous sect these "trembleurs" must have seemed to our soldiers of fortune. Monks shut up in a monastery they could understand, but not men' who could go about their daily business, declining to take up arms for the government which sheltered their homes, and refusing to provide a shelter for those who were hired to do the duty for them. It was a herculean task to recruit for the Royal American, or any regiment in which the soldiers were regarded as no better than negroes, and their officers treated as fair game for extortion. Lord Loudoun did not mend matters by demanding with a high hand winter quarters for the troops, and to his subordinates fell the disagreeable task of securing them. It was Haldimand's first experience of a people who dared to object to anything a military commander should propose to do. Bouquet wrote that he would rather make two campaigns than quarter his soldiers in any of the American towns, but what else could be done when the assemblies refused to build barracks for them or to pay for their keep ? The chief cause of ill feeling between the inhabitants and the British troops was the order which the military had received to keep settlers off the lands secured to the Indians by the Treaty of 1763. Pennsylvania's foreigners not being numerous enough to complete the muster roll of the Royal 12 FIRST DUTY IN AMERICA Americans, Haldimand was ordered to Albany in September to continue his recruiting, and thence to Georgia and the Carolinas on the same errand. Bouquet was meanwhile in command at Charleston, having his own troubles with the assembly, which had decreed that no soldier should ever be billeted among the people. The governor's veto had no effect, and only the good temper and tact of the colonel prevented the whole province from rising in revolt. The country had not yet recovered from the panic of Br ad dock's defeat, and the assembly of Pennsylvania was moved to the point of voting £50,000 for military purposes. It was all needed, as the failure to take Fort Duquesne from the French had emboldened their Indian allies in harassing the British, and the protection of the frontiers from their raids was the first duty the regiment of Royal Americans was called upon to perform. Haldimand's work lay in Pennsylvania, Bouquet's in Carolina. The size of these colonies bordering on the Atlantic and stretching out into No Man's Land would make the European countries they had left appear insignificant in size, and how to protect an ill- defined frontier with an insufficient number of troops, and a sparse population from which to recruit, was the problem that engaged their attention. Of the progress made by Haldimand and his second battalion there is little evidence, but the 18 SIR FREDERICK HALPIMAND letter-book of Colonel Bouquet throws many side lights upon the state of affairs at the time. Principally has he to complain of the ill will shown to his men by private citizens, whose " genteel proceedings" have cured him of any inclination towards falling in love with South Carolina. Half the soldiers lost through sickness and desertion would have been saved had the inhabitants taken them in, which he thinks they could have done with little trouble. The assembly voted £1,000 for barracks for 1,000 men, but would give nothing towards bedding, and they charged duty on provisions for troops that were there solely for the defence of the province. In one of Bouquet's letters there is a request that his correspondent will | tell the people living near Loudoun who refused to help the sick soldiers at a time when they themselves were in want of protection from those very troops they have so inhumanly used, that if they want assistance they shall be the last of His Majesty's servants to receive it, as they have made themselves unworthy of any favours by acting more like savages than Christians." To Governor Ellis he writes on December 10th, 1757, that he has had enough of America and if he could once get away from it nothing would induce him to return. But he had already taken stakes in the country and must have felt more at home in it than Haldimand, through his better knowledge of English. All Bouquet's letters are written in that 14 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS language, while those of his friend, until he employs a secretary, are in French, and his superior officer uses the same in writing to him, for a considerable time, so that Haldimand could not have had any great command of English when he came to America. Both the friends were endowed with the national thriftiness and had saved money at the Hague, which they now invested in real estate in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and also in Maryland. They were already highly esteemed by their seniors, as well as the juniors with whom they were brought in contact, and never wanted for warm friends in their own profession. Both had the thorough German genius for details, and it ere long became known that any programme entrusted to either would be faithfully carried out. Haldimand's face in the picture that has come down to us, has a decided suggestion of his contemporary, George Washington, in the high square forehead, the shape of the nose and the arrangement of the hair, but the mouth is quite different, being small and thin-lipped, with a prim and somewhat severe expression that is belied by the genial kindliness of most beautiful brown eyes. Bouquet does not look nearly so distinguished, but shows an honest, good-humoured, double-chinned face that might pass for a Dutchman's. The two colonels, as well as the younger officers they had brought with them from Holland proved to be splendidly adapted to the service required of them. 15 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND In the records of Cumberland county it is stated that in September, 1757, Colonel Haldeman, to whose name the German settlers gave their own spelling, inspected the camp of his regiment at Carlisle and reported upon its lack of ammunition and other necessaries. Different indeed from European warfare was this following up of elusive bands of savages who rarely attacked the forts but devastated remote farmhouses or lay in wait for their occupants going to and from their work in tfye fields. There was no marching to meet the enemy with unbroken front and glittering arms as at the battle of Mollwitz. The Royal Americans must endeavour to hide their red coats behind the trees, and George Washington wrote to Bouquet suggesting that he and his men adopt the Indian costume. Savage methods would have to be used in fighting savages, as European commanders had learned from General Braddock. "We shall know better how to deal with them another time," he had said on his death-bed, and that other time came within the ken of Henry Bouquet, who, as second in command to the invalid General Forbes, took the long, road-building march with his troops over the mountains and triumphantly made a Fort Pitt out of Fort Duquesne. While the plan of campaign for 1758 was still in abeyance, it was proposed to place Haldimand in command of the Ohio district, and there was 16 AN EXCHANGE further talk of his sailing for Louisbourg to take part in Lord Loudoun's "cabbage-planting" expedition, but in the meantime he was ordered to make up for the neglect of the Maryland assembly by keeping a watchful eye on Fort Cumberland, to see that it was not left unprotected through the provincial troops going home. Eventually he received a letter from General Abercromby, who had probably crossed the Atlantic on the same ship with him, saying that though he would not be offended at a refusal he would be highly pleased to have Haldimand in command of one of his battalions for the expedition into Canada by way of Crown Point. The offer was accepted and the colonel exchanged from the second to the fourth battalion of the Royal Americans. Before he had been two years in the country a nephew and namesake from Switzerland had joined him, a boy about fourteen years of age. Abercromby remarked on his small size when bestowing upon him a commission as ensign, at his uncle's request. This little Frederick was the second of the seven sons of Jean-Abraham Haldimand, the colonel's younger brother. By the month of June, Haldimand was at Saratoga busied with setting in motion the lumbering teams of oxen with their loads of provisions destined for Fort Miller. As protection must be secured for them there, Abercromby directed his colonel to superintend the building of a block-house 17 "if"' li f 1 ■ |J , l( pi 1 ■ f If! ■ , r ■ f SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND and stockade and to employ the provincials who would work at it like giants. Every preparation was being made for the conquest of Canada which was confidently expected that summer, since fifteen thousand men, the largest army that had yet undertaken the task, were now marching to its completion. How General Montcalm stopped them at Carillon, is best told in a couple of letters written by an eye witness from Lake George, dated July 10th, 1758: "The 5th inst. the whole Army Embarqued on board Battoes and the 6th in the morning Landed without opposition at the French advance guard. The same day in the afternoon as our Army was advancing to Ticonderoga our Advanced Guard was attacked by 350 of the Enemy, few of whom escaped to carry intelligence back. 140 of the party was killed on the spot and 152 was taken prisoners. Our loss in this attack did not exceed 30. Unfortunately the Brave Lord Howe was killed in the beginning of this Brush. Our Army got dispersed in the woods in the pursuit, therefore it was thought proper to return to the place where we first Landed. There we was all right. Next morning, the 7th, at Day Light the whole army Marched and in the afternoon took possession without Opposition of the French Second Advance guard or Mills. The morning of the fatal eighth, Broadstreet with an engineer was sent to reconoitre the French lines. They soon returned with the following Acct. That the Enemy 18 CARILLON was Encamp'd on rising ground about half a mile from the Fort but not fortified, only a few Logs laid one on another as a breast work. Upon this intelligence it was thought proper to attempt storming the enemy's lines without loss of time and immediately the whole Army Marched and began the Attack about 9 a.m. I have not time to give you the order of Battle, therefore let it suffice that our Army was repulsed thrice and as often returned to the Charge in the space of four hours. They were obliged to retreat at last with the loss of 2,000 of our best men and officers. This is only my own opinion, no return being made as yet. Our Intelligence was bad for the French had a regular Entrenchment faced with Logs. Their Trench 20 foot broad and Parapet in Proportion. No Regt. has suffered so much as the Highlanders, part of which got upon the top of the french Lines every time an Attack was made and drove the french from where they entered. As a return is not made I am not able to give you a list of the officers killed and Wounded only that every officer of Distinction except the two Generals and Gage are either Killed or Wounded." The same writer continues two days later:—" 1 just arrived at the Army time enough to have a share in the misfortune of the 9th. Oh what a glorious prospect on the morning of that day after we had beat all their Out Posts and taken so many prisoners we had nothing in view but Glory and 19 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Victory with sight of the French Fort, and yet by experience, I, to my Grief, find how little depen- dance one must make on all worldly Expectations, in short is all a Chimera, by Attacking a French intrenchment without Cannon, we lost all our fine views, however I hope we will soon have at them again. Never was there in the world Troops behaved with greater coolness and resolution than ours in spite of all their disadvantages nor never was there in the world such a piece of ground to fight on. It was so very bad that after we were within gunshot the enemy might easily fire ten Rounds before we got up to the length of their intrenchments and that in the face of such a fire of smallarms, wall pieces and musquets as I never saw before (and I think I have seen the smartest that happened all last war) but also after we came to the trenches we found them above six foot high without a possibility of getting in and we had the same fire to stand in coming back. " This work might have lasted about four hours during which time the six regular regiments lost 1,526 Men besides 97 of our best officers Killed and Wounded. I am far from being surprised that we lost so few for such a damnable fire no man in this army ever saw before, the provincials lost very few except the York Regt. who lost some. True indeed the provincials were never Engaged. They came up to sustain us but they began to fire at such a distance they killed several of our men. 20 I CARILLON Yet upon the whole they behaved extremely well. Our principal officers lost are Ld. Howej Coll. Beaver, Coin. Donaldson, Major Rutherford, Major Proby. Well wre are beat but I hope we'll soon have at them again. Ld. Howe's death was a bad affair but he exposed himself too much. We'll wait here at the Lake till there are some officers made, the destruction of them is so great that we have no officers to do duty in the line. Another have at the dogs again. The Engineer Clark is in a dying condition. The first Brigade is most terribly shattered as you may see from Ld. John Murray's highlanders who were the first Regt. of that Brigade. The Indians we had with us who viewed the affair at a distance, allowed us more bravery than the French, but say we are not half so cunning. We breathe nothing but revenge. A flag of Truce going tomorrow to Ticonderoga." Lists of the officers killed and wounded are enclosed and the first name upon the latter is "Coll. Haldiman," of whom another account says: "Major Proby who was killed commanded the pickets who made the first attack, supported by the Grenadiers commanded by Colonel Haldimand (slightly wounded)." Abercromby was recalled at the end of the season and his place supplied by General Amherst who also became colonel commanding the Royal American Regiment. To Colonel Haldimand he wrote a polite note in French, announcing the fact, 21 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND and the subsequent letters that passed between them indicate mutual friendliness. The Swiss colonel was also by this time in correspondence with General Gage, long his superior officer, whose first letter had reached Haldimand in the early spring at Half-Way Brook, so-called from its position between Fort Edward on the Hudson and the new Fort George which Amherst caused to be built on the site of Fort William Henry. Gage writes: "I am very sorry we are so far separated this winter as not to be able to cultivate the acquaintance began last Summer, which I shall take every opportunity of doing, and hope next Campain will furnish me with the means of establishing a Friendship with a person for whom I have a great esteem." The intercourse between the two continued by correspondence and in due time Haldimand knew English well enough to appreciate the reading matter Gage sent him, as well as his letters, to which, however, he always replied in French. The winter of 1758-9 Colonel Haldimand was in command at Fort Edward, a dangerous post, for what was to hinder the victorious French from pushing their way onward even to Albany? Only the fact that Montcalm was without the men or the means for such an undertaking. His Indian allies, confirmed in their allegiance, prowled about the British post, eager for jthe scalps of hunters and wood-cutters. 22 AT FORT EDWARD The colonel was constantly called upon to settle disputes between regulars and rangers. The latter had no real army rank but were as touchy as Indians and required to be humoured since they were indispensable for scouting duty. There were not enough of them, so Haldimand drilled about two hundred of his own men to go out in parties with the rangers and learn their methods. These silent-stepping scouts on snow-shoes explored the neighbourhood of Ticonderoga, even to the mountain on the east side, which Gage regretted had not been done before—and with reason. Had Broad- street and his engineer inspected that height which commanded the fort, the slaughter of July 9th would have been averted. The New York climate was much more severe than that of the central colonies from which most of the Royal Americans had been drawn and they suffered greatly from the cold, getting their feet frozen and being obliged to cut up their blankets in which to wrap them. Haldimand's nearest neighbour, as well as his commanding officer, was General Gage at Albany, who sent him instructions concerning the storehouses and other works that were to be constructed at Fort Edward in the spring, which seemed desperately long in coming. By way of consolation Gage wrote February 15th, 1759, in quite a facetious tone:— "Nature is ever indulgent to the necessitous, and tho' she offers you nothing but Ice and snow upon 23 J SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND her surface she will supply you with brick-clay underneath the snow which I have seen used in many villages of Europe. Tho' Fort Edward should be most ungrateful, Lake George, however, will be more kind and furnish you both stone and lime besides the bricks of the many chimneys that were built there, and I think with such materials your men may rub thro' the Winter as well as their predecessors or even those that pass it h cdte desjolies femmes" He had been apprehensive about the supply of hay and provisions at Fort Edward but says to Haldimand, "You have managed so dextrously with both that my fears are over. .... I have some old magazines scarce worth reading. They are at present lent out but I will send them to you by some other opportunity." Why did he not name these periodicals and thus gratify a present-day public, curious to know exactly what were the well-thumbed pages sent from post to post to beguile the tedium of a lonely winter? There would be the Gentleman's Magazine of course, and perhaps the London, Westminster, Scots or Universal; perchance one of the more solid quarterly reviews, Dr. Johnson's Rambler, or another literary journal. With no illustrations, little current news and many a high-flown treatise, they would yet receive a welcome which no modern magazine can gain from the satiated readers of to-day. The long-looked-for summer came with a leap at 24 ON THE MARCH last and the garrison at Fort Edward gladly received its marching orders—to advance by way of the Mohawk river, Oneida lake and Oswego river to the shore of Lake Ontario. The first view of a fresh-water sea stretching to the horizon would be another astonishment to the Swiss colonel whose ideal of lakes had been formed from those wherein the Alpine ranges were reflected. These sandy shores, relieved in places by low bluffs were not his model of the picturesque, but the voyage to the mouth of the Oswego river had not been undertaken in search of scenery. The fortress there, for years an important stronghold of the British, had been destroyed by Montcalm in 1756, but General Amherst wished it rebuilt and this was the duty that fell to the lot of Colonel Haldimand. Further to the westward was Fort Niagara, held for the French by a garrison in command of Captain Pouchot of the regiment of Be'arn. It was during this summer that Wolfe was besieging Quebec, and Amherst building forts and fleets on Lake Champlain, instead of hastening to his assistance. To General Prideaux's army had been entrusted the task of clearing the enemy from Lake Ontario, and Niagara was the chief point to be attacked. Captain Pouchot called for help from the western posts and it came—nearly twelve hundred colonial regulars, coureurs de bois, and Indians) from Presqulle, on Lake Erie, Forts Le Boeuf and Venango where they had been mustering with the 25 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND design of transforming Fort Pitt once more into Fort Duquesne. As the need of Niagara was greater they responded to Pouchot's appeal but never reached him, being met by the British in overwhelming numbers and defeated. After a siege of seventeen days Niagara surrendered and the proud man to take possession of the fort was Sir William Johnson, as General Prideaux had been killed by accident at the very beginning of the attack. Haldimand's brother officers regretted that the honour had not fallen to him, but he had been left behind at Oswego with 500 or 600 men, and was given a lesser chance to distinguish himself there* Before the British had time to entrench themselves on the site of Fort Ontario, they were attacked by a large body of Canadians and Indians under the partisan officer, La Corne de St. Luc. Colonel Haldimand, though taken by surprise, promptly ordered his men to shelter themselves behind the barrels of flour and pork, of which a sufficient supply had been brought to provision the whole expedition. The loss of this fort would have entailed the abandonment of Niagara also, but the British fire came so fiercely from behind the impromptu barricade that the French retired in chagrin and the colonel could congratulate himself on having held his important post with a loss of but two killed and eleven wounded. M. Douville, in charge at Toronto, heard the cannonading at Niagara and 26 SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON evacuated his post, so that the British gained their end in having possession of Lake Ontario. Upon the death of General Prideaux the command devolved upon Haldimand as next in rank, but to the dismay of the subordinates, Sir William Johnson arrogated it to himself, and sent orders to the colonel to join him at Niagara. Haldimand came and claimed the leadership, but Sir William refused to yield it, and the other was too much of a gentleman to quarrel with him, though he could see for himself that he had not been misinformed regarding the confusion that reigned in the camp. Haldimand wrote to Amherst saying he would serve under Johnson temporarily sooner than make trouble, and the general in reply praised him for his prudent conduct, saying how essential it was not to offend Sir William, the only man capable of keeping the Six Nations faithful to the British, who could not carry on the campaign without them. An entry in Sir William Johnson's diary reads: "August 1st, 1759, I went to see Niagara Falls with Colonel Haldimand, Mr. Ogilvie, and several officers, escorted by three companies of light infantry. Arrived there about 11 o'clock." No doubt the sublimity of the scene, unmarred at that time by the hand of man, would help to soothe Haldimand's irritation, and the next day his party returned to Oswego in two whale-boats, primed with minute directions from Sir William as to what 27 hi SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND was to be accomplished before his own arrival two days later. On the 16th General Gage came to take the chief command, showing orders from General Amherst that included an attack upon the French post at La Galette (Ogdensburg) on the St. Lawrence. If General Wolfe should be defeated at Quebec, which seemed not unlikely, the French, freed from the siege of their capital, would swarm up the river and they must at any cost be kept from regaining their foothold on Lake Ontario. Gage and his subordinates had frequent discussions as to whether or not it was practicable to attempt the expedition. Haldimand voted against it, but Johnson was keen for it, if only to give employment to his Indians who had gathered about Oswego in large numbers, and who, if not started on the war-path, would go home in disgust and be unwilling to turn out the next time they were wanted. Sir William pleaded that it was at least possible to capture and destroy La Galette; but Haldimand's more conservative counsels prevailed and the baronet had to content himself with humouring his Indians by fitting out various scalping parties for the neighbourhood of the French post. The news reached Oswego that Amherst was building a large five-sided fort at Crown Point with live redoubts, which it would take him the rest of the season to complete, and his subordinate officers criticized without reserve the slowness of WINTER QUARTERS his procedure. Why should they be in haste to reach Quebec if he was not ? They employed themselves with the re-erection of Fort Ontario, varied by a little fishing and duck-shooting. Johnson's journal tells us he dines with the general on a Michaelmas goose, and that on October 4th he had Gage, Haldimand and other officers to dinner with him in his tent. On the 8th one of his scouting parties returned with "the agreeable news" that Quebec had surrendered, and the next week Sir William dismissed his Indians and went home. By November Gage too withdrew into winter quarters at Albany, and Haldimand was left with the 4th Battalion of the Royal Americans in command of the new Fort Ontario. 29 CHAPTER III HALDIMAND GOES TO CANADA OSWEGO is an Indian word meaning "rapid water," while Ontario signifies "pretty lake," and neither term is a misnomer. The river, reinforced by the waters of inland lakes to the south and east, came rushing downward in swift full- heartedness to its desired haven, the union with Ontario. That blue, boundless lake lost its summer prettiness in winter-time, taking on a deeper, colder tint, and the ice-bound river-mouth made a bridge for the travellers to and from the post upon its eastern bank. The snow settled down about Fort Ontario, the lake froze out from the shore and the garrisons, there and at Niagara, sickened with scurvy of a sort prevalent among seamen, for which the damp air was blamed. Lime juice, vinegar, cider and other refreshments were sent as alleviations and there was some jealousy between the two posts as to which was entitled to the bulk of these supplies. Far removed from the rest of the world, the officers would be thankful for the magazines Gage continued to send—the last he had received from England, which he hoped would make amends for his own sterility of amusing matter. He had given written instructions to Haldimand regarding one 31 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND part of his duty:—"You will protect all. Indian traders who produce proper passes provided they trade in a fair and honest way; such as shall be convicted of Frauds and Impositions, or, contrary to your orders, sell Rum to Soldiers or Indians whereby the good order and discipline necessary to be kept up in your Garrison shall be interrupted you will banish immediately from your Fort giving notice thereof to the Posts above that they may be sent back to the Inhabited country and not suffered to remain on the communication. The Indians may carry away any quantitys of Rum but the traders must not retail it here." Haldimand had block-houses built to protect the righteous traders and also the boat-landing, as Amherst's orders were to begin the construction of ten or twelve galleys as soon as navigation opened. He was to use his best endeavours also to preserve the Mississauga, almost the only schooner on Lake Ontario, for which purpose sailors and ship carpenters no longer needed on Lake Champlain were sent him; but eventually only the rigging was preserved. The smaller craft too had suffered much damage. Evidently old Ontario was not to be trifled with. So much sickness and so many deaths among the soldiers under his care made the colonel ardently long for the planting-time when he could sow the seeds sent him, in the large gardens he had caused to be prepared at both Niagara and Oswego. 32 SPRINGTIME, 1760 He knew the value of outdoor employment for his men, besides the benefit to be derived in their enfeebled condition from a diet of fresh vegetables. Having lived in Holland, the headquarters of scientific floriculture, it was probably there that he acquired the tastes which have caused him to be remembered as one of the earliest experimental gardeners on this continent. The mid-season between summer and winter, one cannot call it spring, Haldimand would find the most trying. For a few weeks, while the sun, was warm overhead, the melting snow would render the roads impassable and the ice still lingered on the lake borders. On March 9th Gage wrote:— "The snow went off before I could send you the molasses which must now go up by water, when the Rivers and Lakes are navigable. Your men will get better of their distemper when fresh herbs spring up." The air grew balmy overhead and the evenings bright with the bonfires of burning brush that had to be cleared away from the front of the fort. The sick soldiers crept out to bask in the strong sunshine and by the middle of April the lake had shaken herself free from her icy bondage. There was much activity both within and without Fort Ontario that spring of 1760, for the commander-in- chief was expected to bring his main army there by way of the Mohawk and Oswego rivers, to carry out the campaign arranged the year before 33 i;rjEzz_.M:: M SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND General Wolfe alone had fulfilled his part of it, and died in the doing. General Murray, who had manfully held Quebec with a handful of soldiers through the winter, ventured without its gates and was defeated by General Levis at Ste. Foye, on April 28th. This was the news brought by the Onondaga Indians who had been sent out from Oswego on purpose to capture some intelligent prisoner, so that the fate of the capital might be ascertained. "I am apprehensive," wrote Amherst, "that unless our fleet arrive soon, Mr. Murray may be obliged to retreat to the island of Orleans, which is his intention in case it does not." The ships came in time to secure possession of Canada's capital, but till the last remaining French post was captured and the whole country subjugated, Amherst's work was not done. General Levis and the survivors of his gallant troops of the line still held out at Montreal, and there the British decided to descend upon him from three directions: Murray was to bring one army up from Quebec, Haviland another by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu, while Amherst himself was to come with the largest force" down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario. He arrived at Oswego on July 9th and thoroughly approved of the work that Haldimand had accomplished there. It was fully a month before the whole army was assembled, though it is written that the 34 m*m OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT DE L&VIS general reviewed the troops on the third of August. He was a deliberate sort of man, anxious to do his duty but without the genius of Wolfe to enable him to "seize the moment flying." The journal of Sergeant John Johnson contains some contemporary information worthy of note:— "General Amherst's army, being assembled at Oswego and joined by a body of Indians under the command of General Sir William Johnson, he detached Colonel Haldimand with the Light Infantry, Grenadiers, and Montgomery's regiment of Highlanders, to take post at the bottom of the lake to assist the armed vessels in finding a passage to La Galette, as also in pursuance of his plan he had ordered two armed vessels to cruise on the Lake Ontario." These would be the Onondaga and the Mohawk9 classed as "snows," a kind of craft unknown to modern navigators but in common use for merchant service upon the lakes before and after revolutionary times. They had two masts like the main and foremast of a ship, and a third, smaller, near the stern, which carried a try-sail. An officer and thirty men were put on board of each and directed to sail across the lake to Frontenac, where they could challenge the French ships in harbour to come out and give battle. • Haldimand's command sailed safely through the island-blocked mouth of the St. Lawrence and by August 18th was ordered to row down close to the river's southern shore and take up a position 35 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND opposite the French fort, but out of range of its fire, Captain Pouchot, the brave defender of Niagara, was there, and some of his former antagonists gave him a cheer in passing. He had left the mainland and established himself upon an island in the river with respectable entrenchments which he called Fort de LeVis. There with undaunted front he watched the arrival of the whale-boats and batteaux —over eight hundred of them—containing his foes, to whom he gave a hot reception with his well- aimed cannon. But Pouchot knew he could not ultimately prevail against such numbers with artillery in proportion; all he hoped to achieve was the delay of Amherst's army in its descent upon Montreal, so that Governor Vaudreuil and General LeVis might gain time to deal with Murray and Haviland separately. Amherst's own division had dropped further down the river than Haldimand's, but the latter was instructed to join him through the night. His battery was ready for action before the general's, but by the 23rd all were prepared and the desultory cannonading of the three previous days became a steady roar. The French captain, having succeeded in diverting the enemy's attention for a whole week, saw that his tiny island fortress would soon be battered to bits, and surrendered. But there were worse foes than Pouchot and his three hundred to be met and vanquished before Amherst could join forces with his generals around Montreal. The great river of Canada seemed herself 36 RUNNING THE RAPIDS to have taken up arms in defence of the nation whose voyageurs had been wrestling with her rocks and currents for more than a century. What did the invading British know of steering through swirling eddies, of marking by its colour where the deep water ran; of the swift turn of a paddle in a steady hand that could bring a boat in safety through one after another of the rapids of the St. Lawrence ? Pilots had been found among the surrendered Canadians, but it was impossible to have one in each boat, and though they tried to follow one another, there were not enough cool heads and quick eyes, capable of controlling the craft when actually caught in the maddening whirl of tossing waters. The smaller rapids were passed in safety, but in -the Long Sault, four soldiers, three of them Highlanders, lost their fives. That was on September 1st, and on the 4th, during the passage of the Cedars and Cascades, forty-six boats were totally wrecked, many others damaged, and eighty-four men were drowned. With ardour damped by this disaster, the army disembarked at Lachine, marching thence to Montreal, three leagues distant, where they found Havi- land facing the town upon the southern mainland, and Murray encamped on the east of the island itself The time for the final capitulation of Canada had come. Levis with but 2,200 regulars could not hope to hold out behind slim walls, against a 87 ill II SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND united army of 18,000 men. He asked that his soldiers who had made so good a fight for Canada might be allowed to march out with the honours of war, carrying their arms, but to this request General Amherst replied:—"I am fully resolved, for the infamous part the troops of France have acted in exciting the savages to perpetrate the most horrid and unheard-of barbarities in the whole progress of the war, and for other open treacheries and flagrant breaches of faith, to manifest to all the world by this capitulation my detestation of such practices." How much this refusal meant to troops of the line civilians cannot estimate. From LeVis down, every French officer bitterly resented the indignity put upon him, but Amherst was firm and the capitulation was signed on September 8th. To Governor Vaudreuil he wrote:—"I have just sent to your Excellency, by Major Abercrombie, a duplicate of the capitulation which you have signed this morning; and in conformity thereto, and to the letters which have passed between us, I likewise send Colonel Haldimand to take possession of one of the gates of the town, in order to enforce the observation of good order, and prevent differences on both sides. I flatter myself that you will have room to be fully satisfied with my choice of the said colonel on this occasion." The defeated governor was fully satisfied, since no one could have discharged the delicate duty entrusted to him with 38 y MONTREAL CAPITULATES more tact than the chosen emissary—courteous in his bearing, and speaking French as his native tongue. With a corps of grenadiers, fight infantry and a twelve-pounder, Colonel Haldimand took possession of the city of Montreal, and his orders were to let no person pass out or in except the guards and civil servants of whom he was given a list. According to established custom, he demanded the restoration of any British flags captured during the war, as well as the surrender of the colours of the French regiments. These last were not forthcoming, though they had been recently seen, and Amherst directed Haldimand to tell Vaudreuil they must be produced or all baggage would be searched. It was whispered ere long that Levis had caused the flags to be burned in order that they might not fall into the hands of the English, but he denied the charge, although all the standards never came forth to clear him. He and his troops laid down their arms, agreeing not to serve again during the war and were sent home to France. Amherst assured the French officers that every arrangement would be made for their comfort, and as the surest means to that end he placed the provisioning and embarkation in the hands of Colonel Haldimand. But no man can make bricks without straw, and the scarcity of vessels to convey so large a number of persons across the seas made the problem of shipping the military, and the noblesse with their families who 39 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND desired to go with them, difficult of solution. Since enough good ships were not available, Amherst chartered some that proved unseaworthy, notably the August e, which was wrecked in the gulf. Of the 150 souls aboard but six were saved, including Haldimand's old opponent at Oswego, La Corne de St. Luc. General Amherst, as commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, took up his headquarters in New York, but Haldimand remained for nearly two years in Montreal, under General Gage, who had been appointed governor of the town and district. The soldiers in his care, facing a wintry climate more severe than any they had yet experienced, must have been in want of many comforts and even necessaries. A charitable society in London took cognizance of the fact and Colonel Haldimand was charged with the distribution of its timely gifts. That the Swiss soldier of fortune was favourably impressed with Canada is evident from a letter written from Montreal to Colonel Bouquet, now stationed at- Fort Pitt, wherein he described himself as being thoroughly satisfied with his position and advised his friend not to leave the service. 40 CHAPTER IV MILITARY RULE AT THREE RIVERS HOW to govern a newly conquered country, of different laws and language from their own, is a problem that has faced several. European lands, and England's solution, though not entirely satisfactory, has never yet been improved upon. A certain amount of discontent among the new subjects is inevitable, and different experiments may be made before the best course is discovered, but patience and a convincing desire to benefit the governed will ultimately have their reward. For four years after the conquest Canada was under martial law, which sounds like despotism, but was not so in this case. To upset the customs and traditions of an ignorant people by forcing new regulations upon them at the outset would have been cruel and unwise, and as few changes as possible were made. The rulers were told to adapt themselves to the people, who grew to feel that they were being freed from bondage instead of coming under it. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander- in-chief at New York, was also the nominal governor of Canada, but the actual duties fell upon his lieutenant-governors, James Murray at Quebec, Thomas Gage at Montreal, and Ralph Burton at 41 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Three Rivers, and these were men whose personal character inclined them to the prescribed policy of conciliation. Not while they were military governors would the French Canadians be subjected to annoyance or ill treatment either from British soldiers or from the unprincipled pack that began to come in from the other colonies. Governor Murray described these immigrants as being of low birth, uneducated, and the most immoral men he ever knew, while the Canadians were frugal, industrious and moral. The best of feeling existed between the habitants and their seigniors, while the priests, though illiterate, were highly respected by parishioners still more unlearned. England at this time was at war with Spain, and Governor Burton being called upon to join his regiment in the projected siege of Havana, the Cuban capital of the Spanish West Indies, Colonel Haldimand was ordered to Three Rivers to govern that district in his absence. He went in May, and in June there came to him a welcome letter from Sir Jeffrey Amherst:—"By this Packett I have received a list of officers who are Promoted to the Rank of Colonel in the army, and it gives me pleasure to find your name amongst them." Hitherto he had held that position in America only, and he now took steps to become also a British subject, since an act had been passed naturalizing all foreign officers who had served in the Seven Years' War. Three Rivers, his new scene of action, named 42 AT THREE RIVERS from the triple outlet of the River St. Maurice into the St. Lawrence, was founded by Laviolette in 1634. It had been a famous trading post for the Hurons and the Algonquins, among whom the Jesuits laboured for twenty years (1640-1660), until the Iroquois scattered their flock. At the conquest the population was 6,612, with an auxiliary of five hundred christianized Abenaquis and Algonquins settled in the villages of Be'cancour, St. Francxris and Point du Lac. Haldimand divided the government into four districts, Champlain and Riviere du Loup on the north shore, St. Francois and Gentilly on the south. There was in each of these a "chamber of audience," wherein was stationed a corps of militia officers, presided over by a captain, and to them were brought for settlement all civil cases, which were judged according to the long established laws of the country. Thieves, murderers, criminals of any kind, alone were tried by court martial. As there was still some danger from the French, peace having not yet been declared, Murray had war sloops cruising in the river, while he trusted to Haldimand for reinforcements should they be required. The latter held five companies in readiness to march to Jacques Cartier and Deschambault, but he believed the enemy's manoeuvres in the St. Lawrence were only a feint to cover their real designs upon Newfoundland, whereon they hoped to obtain a foothold which would enable them to 43 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND claim fishing rights in the approaching treaty of peace. He proved a true prophet, and when the news came of the taking of St. John's he was pleased to remark that it had no disturbing effect upon the people of his government. On the contrary, he was firmly convinced that a return of the French would fill the inhabitants with despair, as they valued their increase of liberty, and desired only to be let alone to get in their harvest. Some restriction had to be placed upon their disposal of grain, for they were inclined to seek the larger prices of the larger markets now to be had in the English colonies. To ship it all out of the country would be to court famine at home. Exportation was therefore forbidden in the winter time, except in seasons when the price of wheat in Quebec was less than three shillings and four pence a minot. There was a fire in Three Rivers that summer, and one the next; both large, considering the size of the town, for we read that five whole houses were burned at once. The soldiers worked hard as firemen, a r61e which taxed their energies to the utmost, as the houses were all of wood and there were no fire-engines, even of the most primitive description. The governor issued a proclamation, calling for aid to be given to the burnt-out families as a thank offering from those who had escaped, and he appointed certain priests to receive the donations. Those who could not give money were asked to contribute planks, beams, or other 44 HIS PROCLAMATIONS material suitable for rebuilding, and he authorized a lottery for the same purpose. On October 2nd he issued a special notice on the subject of fires and how to prevent them, as the inhabitants took no precautions, having scarcely even a ladder available. Now there was to be one in every house. Haldimand's official proclamations would interest the seeker after local colour. The public is warned to be on the look-out for two German servants who have deserted from Montreal; anyone harbouring a certain individual under arrest will be subjected to corporal punishment; cattle are to be kept fenced in, and it is forbidden to buy pickaxes or shovels from the soldiers, as these are His Majesty's property. The primitive character of the local government is indicated in the placard announcing that the administration of justice will be suspended from August 7th till September 15th, to allow the administrators to go home and attend to their crops. The governor was invited to a horse race in Quebec, and perhaps he went and perhaps it was then he made up his mind that before the winter set in the king's highway must be improved. At any rate in the autumn he proclaimed that the road between Montreal and Quebec in certain places within the government of Three Rivers was so narrow that couriers and voyageurs were retarded whenever several carriages met, while lakes and sloughs were formed by heavy falls of rain or snow. It was therefore ordered that " le grand chemin de 45 zk SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Roy" leading from Montreal to Quebec should be made thirty feet wide between the enclosures or the woods, and that in order to drain the waters there should be a ditch at all necessary places, three feet wide and two and a half feet deep, in digging which the earth was to be thrown into the middle of the road proper, so as to give it a gentle slope towards the ditch. A writer of the time describes this highway:—"The road from Quebec to Montreal is almost a continued street, the villages being numerous and so extended along the banks of the River St. Lawrence as to leave scarce a space without houses in view; except where here or there a river, a wood or a mountain intervenes, as if to give a more pleasing variety to the scene." The journey between the two towns was generally made by boat in the summer time, a three days' excursion, with a nightly landing to dance at the houses of the seigniors, if there were ladies in the party. The very first proclamation issued by the new governor of Three Rivers had reference to the prohibition of persons hunting upon the seigniory of St. Maurice, three leagues from the town, or around the forges there, without permission. The existence of these mines, which were considered of sufficient importance to claim a special clause in the capitulation of Canada, was first made known to Intendant Talon in 1666. He sent a couple of engineers to investigate them, but it was 1730-36 46 n THE ST. MAURICE FORGES before they were worked by a private company, and King Louis reclaimed their ownership in 1743. The St. Maurice forges would be the first thing to attract Colonel Haldimand's attention when he assumed the governorship, and on May 24th he sent General Amherst an estimate of the probable expense of smelting a quantity of worn-out guns and bombs that were in store. The commander-in- chief was pleased to approve his scheme for "converting all the old cast-iron into bars of serviceable and good iron," "as well as getting the room that all that useless stuff takes up." If Three Rivers iron could come into use for the navy, Haldimand undertook to keep up the supply. Thirty-three thousand pounds of pig iron were smelted in one month, and before the end of August he had three million pounds of good iron in bars. Montreal and Quebec both sent their old metal to be worked over, and the profits of the year amounted to $1,770.84. This was not a large amount according to modern ideas, but the ruinous state of the forges must be taken into account, as well as the deficiency of tools and skilled mechanics. The colonel had to keep a close eye upon the works himself with but little encouragement from the inhabitants, who were not sufficiently far-seeing to consider what a mighty difference the success of the forges would make in the development of their district. Why this energetic governor should wish to rebuild them and should advance money out of 47 if SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND his own pocket to keep them going was what they could not understand. Ore was collected and the work went on under the direction of a Swede called Nordberg, who knew his business. Why should he not? When Pierre Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, visited the forges in 1749, he observed that they were worked upon the system employed in his country and was curious to account for the fact. The reason reached back to the time of the French minister Colbert, who in 1674 had sent artisans to learn their trade in Sweden, and they had taught the workmen who afterwards came to Canada. Dr. Laterriere who was inspector of the forges from 1775 to 1780, reports them making a profit of fifty louis a day at that time and employing 400 to 800 persons.1 It was during his first term at Three Rivers that Haldimand made the acquaintance of that erratic priest, Pere Roubaud. The RecoUet Fathers had been recommended to him by General Gage as honest, obedient men of simple manners, with no desire to stir up ill-will by mixing in cabals or intrigue. But this man was a Jesuit. When he went to Quebec without a passport, the Father Superior agreed to hold him fast and shut him up in the seminary as his conduct was a disgrace to the 1Of the district he says:—"Le pais est plat, le terrain (un sol jaune et sablonneux) est plein de savanes et de brules, ou se trouve la mine par veines, que Ton appelle mine en grains ou en galets, de coul- eur bleue; quoique le mineral contienne du soufre et des matieres terreuses, il rend en general 33 pour 100 de pur et excellent fer." 48 PERE ROUBAUD order; but he was not easily restrained. Amherst wrote that Pere Roubaud was not to be allowed to rove about, but on his return to Three Rivers he asked leave to go with some Indians in search of new mines, and Haldimand let him depart, though he had small faith in the result of his travels. The French might not be very good fanners, but as explorers they had not left anything of moment unmarked. The unworthy Father came back destitute, and Haldimand supplied his wants, giving him also some writing to do. He was a clever scamp, this Roubaud, and the spurious letter of Montcalm, predicting far too circumstantially the revolt of the British colonies, has been attributed to him. At his final appearance during Haldimand's regime at Three Rivers, he was suffering from an attack of tertian fever and it was a month before he was well enough to be removed to the care of his brethren in Quebec When the colonel assumed his new command, there had appeared to be danger of friction between him and Governor Murray, whom he credited with a desire to assert the supremacy of Quebec over Three Rivers, which caused Haldimand to insist upon the independence of his government. The two ultimately became good friends and General Murray exerted himself to further the advancement in the army of his colleague's nephew. Frederick Haldimand, junior, had been with his 49 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND uncle in the 4th battalion, Royal Americans, at Montreal, but now he was put upon surveying duty. Besides drawing sectional maps of the province he was required to send in historical accounts of the towns and governments of Three Rivers and Montreal. He had also to collect contemporary details of administration, no easy task, as the colonel explained to General Murray, whom he ran the risk of offending through the excuses he made for his young relative. He had wished his nephew to serve as an engineer for nothing save experience, but Murray gave him a year's pay and suggested that he settle his debts therewith. The lieutenant "seemed so uneasy" at this proposal that the general told him he had better place himself under his uncle's protection. The boy had no vices, it appeared, but some very expensive tastes which his guardian was not rich enough to gratify. He hoped the tradesmen would teach Frederick a lesson by pressing him hard, as they were to blame for having given him credit. That the colonel was much attached to his young namesake there is abundant evidence. It was with a view to settling him upon it that he bought, in 1765, the seigniory of Grand Pab6s, a part of the Gaspe peninsula on the north side of the Chaleur Bay, where now is a township of the same name. It was not a popular part of the country among farmers, who preferred the banks of the great river, or of the Richelieu. German settlers 50 w [If I Iff AN EXPENSIVE POST were tried, but they lacked experience and needed too much assistance, difficult to give in such a remote quarter; so Haldimand was advised to transport some of the expatriated Acadians who would in all probability gladly accede to the liberal conditions offered. He had property too in Shipody, Nova Scotia, but the first cost of land anywhere was little in comparison with the amount that had to be expended in getting it cleared and settled. Three Rivers was proving an expensive government for an honest man, and Haldimand would gladly have resigned it at the end of six months. The twenty shillings a day allowed him was not sufficient to maintain his position, and he had even to furnish money for the needed repairs to government house. Colonel Burton had left his family at Three Rivers in charge of Colonel Haldimand, and he was expected back by the end of October, but it was December ere he arrived in New York, and he remained there for some time in order that the transition from the Cuban summer to the rigorous climate of Canada might not be too sudden. Always looking for his return, the substitute made the best of things as they were, and even tried to better them. He found the Canadians at Three Rivers, as elsewhere, a litigious lot, and endeavoured to the best of his ability to persuade them to settle their differences by amiable arbitration, instead of by perpetual lawsuits. 51 I 111™. it 4 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND The most troublesome class with whom he had to deal were the wearers of that coveted decoration, the Cross of St. Louis, who lived upon the glamour of their past exploits, chiefly in " the little war" with savage allies. Poor and proud, there were not more than a dozen of them left in Canada, but some who had gone to France returned, embittered by their reception in the mother country, and by their losses through the paper money of M. Bigot, for the repose of whose soul, Haldimand judged, there would be a lack of masses. Gage wrote him upon this subject: " I am glad to hear that your Croix de St. Louis talk so loudly against the French, tho' I don't believe their treatment in France was so bad as they represent; they were put upon the same footing as all the other French troops, but these gentlemen expected to be put upon an extraordinary footing. I hope they will behave with that decency and obedience to their new monarch under whose protection they enjoy their liberty and estates which becomes their situation. They are of a busy temper and hardly to be restrained from meddling in all affairs."1 The clergy and noblesse refused to believe that Canada would ever be ceded to England, and when the Treaty of Paris placed the country finally under British rule, a second exodus took place, though 1 L'abbe Raynal is quite of this opinion—ffLa colonie n'auroit-elle pas beaucoup gagne a etre debarrassee de tous ces nobles orgueilleux qui y entretenoientle mepris de tous les travaux ?" 52 CHANGES IN COMMANDS smaller than was expected. A number of the intending emigrants had meanwhile become satisfied with the new regime. "I am persuaded," wrote Haldimand, " that they would be in despair were they to see a French fleet and troops arrive in this country in any number whatever; they begin to taste too well the sweets of liberty to be the dupes of the French; they are now engaged at their harvest peacefully and it is a good one this year." Those who thought of returning to France were given eighteen months to make up their minds, and Haldimand was sure that twenty would not depart from his government, nor even ten. He was justified in his confidence, for when the time came, two women, two children and a servant were all that sailed away. Burton arrived in the spring of 1763, and Haldimand yielded to him the reins of government, returning to Montreal; but within a year he was back in Three Rivers, for there had been another change in commands. Sir Jeffrey Amherst's retirement promoted Gage to his place in New York, while Burton took that of Gage in Montreal. Murray was made governor-general, and that there was by this time good feeling established between him and Haldimand is witnessed by the* hitter's willingness to serve under him. The colonel's financial circumstances were such that it was necessary for him to retain some appointment if he wished to remain in America, and he calculated that he could 53 1 I I III if- SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND by his management of the St. Maurice forges save the king an amount equivalent to the pay of a lieutenant-governor. His economic abilities were highly appreciated at a time when the British ministry had discovered that the revenue from the whole of the colonies did not cover the cost of its collection, and that more stringent measures must be adopted for the suppression of contraband trade. There were no fisheries at Three Rivers, but plenty of timber: pine suitable for masts on the north side of the river, oak on the south. The mainstay of the town, however, and the country round about it, was the trade with the T£tes de Boule, who every May or June came paddling down the St. Maurice with furs collected through the winter in the vast northern regions which it drains. The ending of the war had increased the number of traders, and as competition became keener, some of them would slip quietly away up the river to meet the Indians coming down and secure their choicest furs at lowest rates. To this traffic Haldimand firmly put an end, proclaiming that the T£tes de Boule were to be allowed to bring their wares into the public market at Three Rivers. Notice of their arrival was given by the town crier, so that all the inhabitants might have an equal chance to trade, and the Indians run no risk of unfair treatment. The governor regulated also the distribution of ammunition and of liquor, allowing it only to traders he could trust to supply the aborigines. 54 it DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS It was a time for dealing cautiously with the savage tribes, because, as Murray remarked, "a truce with the Indians is always a summons to vigilance." They had not been consulted about the Treaty of Paris, nor had the English taken pains to preserve their friendship once the French rivalry was removed. One, called Pontiac, in the far west was demonstrating what could be done by a union against these white men whom they accused of usurping their rights. The Indians were slow to realize that France was no longer a leading power on the continent, and there were not wanting coureurs de bois to convince them that King Louis was but asleep, and would soon awake to drive the English back to the sea-board. Haldimand's only encounter with this spirit was among the Abena- quis of St. Francois, who demanded of him rights they had never before possessed; but he delayed replying to their petition until he should visit their village in person and make an effort to find out the Frenchmen whom he suspected of being at the bottom of the trouble. The fear of a general Indian uprising was so great that the English became specially desirous of having a corps of three hundred French Canadians to serve with the regulars in order that the red men, seeing their former allies fighting under the banner of Great Britain, would be constrained to believe that the old regime had verily passed away. Montreal and Quebec were each asked to enlist 55 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND two companies, and Three Rivers one, who were to serve only for the campaign. They were to get twelve piastres in silver and a capot, two pairs of moccasins and a pair of mittens, besides their food, arms and ammunition. The pay was to be sixpence a day, and a priest was to accompany the contingent; but the Canadians, accustomed to serve for nothing under French rule, were suspicious of the offered terms, thinking that it meant they were to be enlisted for life, or draughted off into the English colonies whence they would never return. Colonel Haldimand doubted his ability to raise the sixty recruits required of him, and Burton was having difficulty in Montreal, but Murray was positive he could get 1,000 more than he wanted in Quebec. The governor-general told his lieutenants to draught men from the militia without scruple, though these were not supposed to be sent out of the province without the king's special command. It was comparatively easy to pick up a number of idle men in town, but the country people did not present themselves with the same alacrity. Burton had the best chance of recruiting, Montreal being full of voyageurs at that season, but in the end it was Haldimand only who completed his company in the allotted time by volunteers, who, he wrote, would be able to march as soon as the roads were practicable. He was even able to send to Quebec ten supernumeraries to 56 INTEREST IN AGRICULTURE replace those General Murray had been obliged to press into the service. The much talked-of corps never had a battle, and its members returned to their homes at the end of the summer quite satisfied with their treatment, but their enlistment had had the desired effect, since General Gage wrote on May 2nd, 1764:—"The news of the march of the Canadians has already astonished the savages, and Sir William Johnson says it will have a better effect to convince them of their folly than anything he can say or do that there is no assistance to be expected from that quarter. Mais ne dites rien de tout cela en Canada." Gage's letters to Haldimand during this period are of increased importance, since the writer, as commander-in-chief, had his finger upon the public pulse in the English colonies. It was evidently beating high, and would beat higher still when the Pontiac uprising was finally quelled. Gage was pleased to learn that the Indians of the Three Rivers district disapproved of the conduct of their brethren in the upper country. Writing to the British minister, Lord Halifax, about the same time, Haldimand said that his people were showing more assiduity and care in improving their lands than they had done for a considerable time, and he only wished some men who had studied agriculture would emigrate to the country and set an example. The Canadians, he continued, were so accustomed to being deceived 57 i|||; \ m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND that they had little hope of the paper money given them before the conquest being ever redeemed, and were therefore all the more grateful to His Majesty's most gracious probity in that respect. He had kept warning them since his first assumption of the government not to let their paper money go for little or nothing, as it would sometime be redeemed—and so it was, but not till 1768. In March, 1764, Gage wrote to Haldimand:— "Your friend, Colonel Bouquet, is here, and is very impatient to know what he is to do, which I can't tell him till the province of Pennsylvania shall finally determine whether they will grant supplies of men or not." By the month of May that province seems at length disposed to grant an aid of troops, but "all the Colonys are in great wrath that they are to pay their proportion of the expenses of State. They are all to be taxed by a vote of the British parliament, and will contribute to pay the Troops and Fleet on the American Service." Later came the cheering news that Colonel Bouquet had won a couple of victories against the Indians at Bushy Run and been publicly thanked by the king. Haldimand hoped that the compliment would make his friend forget his exile, but a promotion that entailed further banishment proved fatal to the gallant Swiss. In 1765 Bouquet was made brigadier and placed in command of the southern district, with headquarters at Pensacola. There he died the next year, and Haldimand, his 58 II 4 ^y yy 1 MILITARY LAW ABOLISHED heir and executor, mourned for him most sincerely. The sole American link with his own early life was broken. When the year and a half limit after the Treaty of Paris had expired, and all the French indisposed to remain peaceably under British rule had presumably embarked for France, it was deemed time to yield to the number of English in the community, do away with military law and apply the ordinary. civil code of the governing country. M. Garneau, the modern French Canadian historian, voices the sentiments of his ancestors upon this change:— "Their king, by his sole authority, without parliamentary sanction, abolished those laws of olden France, so precise^ so clear, so wisely framed, to substitute for them the jurisprudence of England —a chaos of prescriptive and statutory acts and decisions invested with complicated and barbaric forms, which English legislation has never been able to shake off, despite all the endeavours of its best exponents." This is strong language from the writer who has just been exclaiming against the martial system adopted in Canada by which its people were denied the rights of British subjects— but undoubtedly they were averse to changes of any description. Murray states that the Canadians had become reconciled not only to British rule, but to the military form of government, and now they saw their militia officers supplanted by lawyers, settlers and traders, who knew no French, insulted 59 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the noblesse and hated the habitants. No wonder they considered themselves oppressed by the introduction of civil government. On the other hand the English merchants sent to the king a petition against the tyranny of General Murray, whose only fault, according to Garneau, was sympathy for the Canadians, and the seigneurs sent a counter petition praising the justice of his military rule. There were not enough Protestants in the district of Three Rivers to make the requisite number of judges, and therefore in 1764, its government was temporarily divided between those of Quebec and Montreal. The St. Maurice on the north and the Godefroy on the south of the St. Lawrence formed the dividing line. General Gage complimented Haldimand on having chosen prudent and discreet justices of the peace who would ensure public tranquillity. "The other magistrates," he wrote, "seem to have thought they had power given them to tyrannize and distress rather than to do justice and see order put in the country. All the noise and misunderstanding are due to this." Haldimand remarked that the busybodies who reigned at Quebec and Montreal were rendering the country every day more disagreeable, but the contagion had not yet reached Three Rivers. It came in time, and as the inconveniences of the situation increased, he became more and more anxious to turn his command over to the civil authorities and lead a quiet fife elsewhere. On April 29th, 60 HIS NEPHEW'S DEATH 1765, he wrote to his superior officer, in French as usual:—"It would seem perhaps to be my fortune to stay in this country, but I have suffered from so many disagreements on the right hand and the left and I foresee so many more that I see myself forced to sacrifice my interest to my repose; if a neutral part be the most honest it is not the most advantageous in a place where one is almost sure to make enemies who become irreconcilable." Gage was his very good friend and promised to see that he was reimbursed for the extraordinary expenses of his government, but still it was the summer of 1765 before he relieved him of his harassing command and granted him leave of absence to visit England. The colonel had not been in good health* during his last winter at Three Rivers and he was glad to seek a kindlier clime. Governor-General Murray wrote to him from Quebec in April, 1765, congratulating him on his promotion to the rank of brigadier and promising to issue grants of land for his nephew, Frederick, as soon as he knew those selected. But the grants were never needed because young Haldimand was drowned at Louisbourg in 1766. He was of age by that time, but the colonel's New York agent, Mr. Hugh Wallace, thought only of the boy who had come to America so frill of hope and ambition seven years before, when he wrote:—"Very sorry I am for the unhappy fate of dear little Frederick, your nephew." 61 itl SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND It was a great grief to the uncle, for his young kinsman had brought him " forward-looking thoughts." He had planned his exchange with Conrad Gugy, a Swiss who came to Quebec with General Wolfe and was Haldimand's secretary at Three Rivers, but had now turned land-owner. Gugy went to settle upon the fief he had bought at Machiche, and Frederick's commission as lieutenant was on its way out from England, when he met his death. Writing from London in June, Haldimand declared that since he left Canada he had lost what he held dearest—Bouquet and his nephew. His personal advancement would be poor consolation, especially as he had asked to command in the northern district of North America and was sent to the southern instead. It was in December that he received the appointment and by the spring he was settled in his new abode. The government house he had left at Three Rivers was turned into a barrack and his cherished mines were, in 1767, leased for sixteen years to Christopher Pelissier and others, by Sir Guy Carle- ton, General Murray's successor at Quebec. !r is' 62 iii CHAPTER V SIX YEARS IN FLORIDA BRIGADIER BOUQUET died at Pensacola of a broken heart, it was rumoured, since his lady love, Miss Willing, of Philadelphia, had taken unto herself a husband while her Swiss lover was off at the wars. He seems to have had a more emotional, impulsive temperament than Haldimand; he was given to fits of depression, which, aggravated by a trying climate, would be apt to open the way to disease. His friend, who deeply lamented his death, was appointed to the melancholy duty of occupying his place as commander of the southern district. The tomb that he caused to be built for Bouquet on the shore of Pensacola Bay has long since disappeared, the surrounding earth having been undermined by the waves rushing in from the Gulf of Mexico, while the bricks of which it was composed were probably stolen by Spanish marauders.1 1 Extract from letter of It. L. Campbell, Pensacola, to Kingsford the historian:—"There is no sign above earth of a single one of the English population who must have died in Pensacola during the British rule of twenty years. Of their place of burial there is satisfactory evidence. It was situated on a bluff in the bay, not many feet above the water-level. The spot was gradually undermined by the waters of the gulf and towards 1870 several skeletons became exposed." 63 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND The Florida of that time was not only the peninsula which goes by the name to-day but included the counties next the gulf in the present states of Alabama and Mississippi, and its western boundary reached the Mississippi river. Originally a Spanish settlement, it had been handed over to England at the Treaty of Paris in exchange for Havana. Louisiana, on the west of the " Father of Waters," with indefinite northern boundaries, had been secretly transferred by France to Spain. At Three Rivers Haldimand had governed a people recently brought under a new master, but they were of one nationality; now he was called upon to deal with Spaniards, French and newly-come Britons, of one mind only in their greed for gain. He was a man who never entered lightly upon new responsibilities, but believed in preparing himself, as far as it was possible, by securing advance information. In this case he took means to find out how the Spanish governor of Louisiana was treating the French; what were the annual exports and imports of New Orleans, and how much British trade was done there; the disposition of the French and Acadians towards the Spanish, and how the latter behaved to the Indians; the state of the boats at the different posts that would come under his control, and the general nature of the Floridan soil and productions. It was a flat sandy place, by all accounts, where oak and pine trees sheltered an abundance of game and wild animals. 64 FIRST DAYS AT PENSACOLA Bouquet had died so soon after his arrival at Pensacola that his predecessor, Brigadier Taylor, had not taken his departure when Haldimand came on March 24th, 1767. The dilapidated appearance of the place was in keeping with the account Taylor gave of his squabbles with Governor Johnstone, whom he blamed for the non-erection of suitable accommodation for the troops, though there were no houses in which they could be quartered. Haldimand had'reigned alone at Three Rivers and he was of the opinion that a military government would have been better in Florida where the French and Spanish could neither understand nor appreciate English civil law; but the governor was there and he must do his best to live at peace with him.- This was not easy when he found the civil ruler installed within the fort in a house that had been yielded to him out of politeness by the military commander, as a temporary accommodation. Johnstone not only refused to move, but asked for a stockade to be built between his abode and the barracks. Haldimand had to find quarters for himself and his officers elsewhere and pay the exorbitant prices asked for them. Moreover, his presence in the fort led the governor to believe he was in command thereof, and being a man of violent temper, it was difficult to undeceive him. The people were often in doubt whom they should obey, and Haldimand was to have a siege of a most wearing kind—hard work under constant 65 I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND unfriendly surveillance. But he set himself resolutely to the tasks before him which were multitudinous. The fort was in a scandalous condition, the store houses for ammunition being made of material so combustible that by the least accident, or by treacherous Indians throwing in a burning arrow, the whole would be blown up. There was no hospital, though the soldiers sickened and died by scores, especially those who came in the summer season from the north, to find themselves removed from every convenience. A whole detachment from England was laid low at once with "putrid fever." Haldimand blamed the water which was drawn from a neighbouring swamp, and he tried sinking wells, but without good results. Dr. Lorimer, whom he consulted persistently upon methods for improving the health of the troops, advised mixing rum with their drinking water, but General Gage, commander-in-chief at New York, objected on the score of economy, and said he knew also the evil effects of opening "a sluice of rum." He recommended the making of spruce beer instead, and sent kettles for the purpose, so that the air was soon odorous with sassafras; but Haldimand stuck to^ his opinion that rum was better for the soldiers in hot weather. If they did not get it pure in their supplies, they would poison themselves by drinking a variety made in New England to be had at the shops. 66 IMPROVEMENTS AT PENSACOLA The Brigadier's progress in his work as well as his improvement in writing English is evidenced by a letter to Captain Ross of the 31st regiment, dated Pensacola, August 6th, 1767:— "Dear Sir,—I was favour'd with your kind letter of the 24th Mar. and heard with the greatest pleasure of your safe arrival in England where no doubt you will mdemnify yourself for what pennence you have made here. I am much obliged to you for the newspapers you sent to Capt. Warlo for the bennifit of the garrison, we are in want of everything to comfort and amuse us, altho' our situation is much altered for the better you may immagine how I was surprised at my first entering this place to see the Misery people lived in, being pent within heigh rotten Palissados, built for Spanish convicts, deprived of air and particullarly of the Sea Breeze the only comfort nature seems to intend for this place. . . . We have in about tow months time removed the Stockade at a great distance, built Storehouses, enclosed a large piece of ground for gardens, built an hospital, magazines, Sheds, and begin a ditch to drain the swamps behind the town and bring fresh watter into the Garrison. ... I whish you all joy and happiness, but don't forget your friends in distress." Before the end of May the heat was so great that work had to be stopped in the middle of the day, but still it went on. Ninety-two in the shade could not blight the energy of a man like Haldi- 67 mm SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND mand, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his soldiers improve in health through his betterment of their condition. They should, he thought, have fresh beef oftener, but pasturage was poor, and though an order had been issued against the exportation of cattle, the civil government was not strong enough to enforce it. Batteaux and vessels of all kinds were in as bad condition as everything else; and repairs were expensive from the scarcity of all kinds of skilled labour. Five white carpenters were worth more than a whole squad of negroes who did "little and cost much." The best of them would not cut more than four cords of wood in a week and it was three dollars a cord, so it became a question whether it would not be cheaper to import coal. General Gage was constantly urging economy upon his subordinates, when flour in Florida was fourteen dollars a barrel and other things in proportion. The expense of Haldimand's living far exceeded his pay, but it vexed him more to see his soldiers running into debt for necessaries. They were completely at the mercy of the masters of vessels, who charged what they chose for their cargoes. A ship laden with bedding for the troops and much-needed tools of all sorts, as well as provisions, was lost at sea, and the winter found the garrison at Pensacola ill-prepared to meet it. If the commander felt the cold as much as he had ever done in Canada, what must the privates have 68 w ill CONFLICT WITH THE GOVERNOR suffered, sleeping on bare boards, with neither beds nor blankets, while the storms from the gulf threatened to blow their rotten barracks about their ears, and the winter rains beat upon their leaky roof? One cause of dispute between Governor Johnstone and Brigadier Taylor had been a war with the Creeks, which the former favoured and the latter opposed, while Haldimand had difficulties of the same kind with Johnstone's successor. The military commander found it hard to please savages accustomed to the pomp of a civil governor coining among them laden with presents and holding a mimic court where the red men could gaze in wonder at his gorgeous escort. "These pleasure parties called Congresses," he wrote, "are held at an annual cost of thousands of pounds," and yet he was being censured for the amount of his expenditure in the public service. " Meanwhile I am ruinning myself in Expectation," he wrote to Captain Marsh, "and God knows if people don't imagine I am making monny; you know who tender I am upon this article, and I hope you will undeceive anybody who would entertain sush false notions, and let me know without flatery what they realy think of me and of my services . • • my chiny almost gone, want a supply of 24 comon plates and 6 small disches." The governor wished to have new posts established for the benefit of himself and friends, and 69 i 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND argued that the Spaniards were doing the like upon the Mississippi, but Haldimand did not believe in taking up positions that could not be maintained, and was more disposed to evacuate forts he deemed useless, like those of Tombechbe, Bute and Natchez. He would rather open a road to Mobile, but Gage decided that was a work for the civil government. The population of the town was increasing, folk being drawn thither by the hope of a Spanish trade, but many were doomed to disappointment. Pensacola had improved in health, but Mobile was still an hospital and Haldimand sent Dr. Lorimer there to report on the causes and suggest cures. The settlers who were being coaxed to come in must be advised upon the best means to prevent sickness, and warned against going inland to make trouble with the Indians. The Chickasaws were a brave tribe, who would become good friends if the Spaniards let them alone, but the warlike Creeks and the treacherous Choctaws were best employed fighting one another, since both hated the English. Each complained that ammunition had been given to the other, and Haldimand had to exercise much diplomacy to keep himself from becoming embroiled with them. The accounts of Florida sent northward had been far too flattering in respect to its facilities for agriculture. As for commerce, the people lacked enterprise, and the harbour was so full of worms it was useful only as a port of refuge. Nevertheless 70 1 TRADE AND AGRICULTURE Haldimand wrote Admiral Parry at Jamaica, asking him to come to Pensacola for the good of his health and saying that the country was not so bad as it had been represented. He sent him magnolia plants and seeds, and told him how delighted he would be to see his flag in the bay. To another friend Haldimand wrote that his district was no more unhealthy than any other southern colony, and need have no terrors for a temperate man. No doubt he was homesick sometimes, not for Switzerland only but for the many friends he had made since leaving it, and for the sort of life to which he was accustomed. His one comfort was his garden. What a change from the flora of Canada to the semi-tropical vegetation of Pensacola! Haldimand had much pleasure in the success of his experiments, both with native plants and with seeds sent from New York, though many of the latter having come from England were too old for sprouting before they were put into the ground. The governor and council would have granted lands up to the glacis of every fort in Florida, but the brigadier claimed three square miles of open country to be left around each, and he had large gardens laid out for the use of the soldiers. He encouraged them also to raise crops, to fish and to keep chickens, thus providing a change from their salted food. The Indians brought wild turkeys and venison to the garrisons occasionally, but they demanded as much of other provisions in return. 71 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND A great believer in the civilizing power of agriculture, Haldimand wished to give ploughs and oxen to the Illinois and Natchez, instead of establishing among them the military posts which the Indian traders wanted for their own nefarious traffic, the cause of all disorders. In March came Spanish vessels bringing dye-wood, cotton, and other articles to trade, which revived the hopes of the merchants, but most of the Floridans were fonder of law-making than of soiling their fingers with indigo. A lazier set, Haldimand, with his thrifty Swiss rearing, had never encountered, and he spoke of the service as the most disagreeable he had yet experienced. After the death of Frederick, he had asked his brother, Jean-Abraham, to let him have another of his sons, and accordingly Pierre Haldimand, a young man of twenty-two, joined his uncle at Pensacola during the summer of 1768. A commission was sought for him from General Gage, but six months later the brigadier wrote to the commander- in-chief, " the boy is sick and fears he cannot enter the service," while to the boy's brother, Antoine Francois, in England, he wrote that Pierre wished to return to London and might go into business. Meanwhile the lad was sent north where a correspondent of Haldimand described him as " a very discreet and prudent young man." He spent the winter of 1769-70 in Maryland, though his uncle would rather he had gone to Quebec, and to Canada he finally went, being placed in charge of 72 FRICTION WITH CIVIL AUTHORITY the seigniory at Pabos which had been bought for his deceased elder brother. Though the brigadier deplored being still in "this villainous country" as he called Florida, he was beginning to dread a return to the northern winter, but must have thought well of America, for he advised a cousin in London who had sent him a present of champagne to take up land on this side of the Atlantic rather than the other and promised him introductions all over the country should he see fit to come out. Gage had written, " As for the Factions carrying on amongst the civil part of the Province, I hope they will not part the Military part who can't have much to do with their partys, and the King has lodged sufficient power with you to carry on the military service," but each new governor seemed to bring fresh trouble in his train. Haldimand wished to be empowered to accede to the request of Don Ulloa, the Spanish governor at New Orleans, for a cartel, if only to regain deserters, "vermin who may slip in among the Indians, and do harm." Most mortifying then was it to see the civil governor set off upon a mysterious embassy to the Louisian- ian capital, probably for the arrangement of this very matter. He called engineers and store-keepers to his council and clerks to his assembly, so that the military commander was left with but a minimum of power to carry out the improvements upon which his mind was bent. 73 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Haldimand was disgusted with a service " so expensive and ill rewarded, where one is liable to be attacked by the malice of people more dangerous than wild beasts." He had been pressing his claims for a brigade and had hoped for different treatment, but Florida was out of the way and a man was apt to be overlooked who stayed there many years. To his friend Thomas Willing, in Philadelphia, he wrote of the country as " a Purgatory where we qualify ourselves for the happiness of leaving (sometime hereafter) amongst you I have patience, whishing sincerely it may be soon." But despite his own discomforts, he rejoiced in the better state of his garrison, which could soon claim to be as healthy as any on the continent. He belonged to an age when the individual counted for more than the machine gun. "I know the worth of a brave soldier," he said, "and think it one of my principal duties to preserve them to their country." Gage declared that the keeping up of Fort Pensacola cost more than the whole of West Florida was worth, and there were constant disputes between governor and commander as to who should pay the piper. In his desire to make ends meet, the latter instructed Mr. Hugh Wallace, his New York agent, to mortgage his lands at Shipody, Nova Scotia, or to sell the seigniory of Pab6s; but neither could be done, and Haldimand was obliged to borrow £500 through his nephew in London, giving his house as security. 74 A FRIENDLY LETTER Brigadier Taylor was more fortunate in his command at St. Augustine where he too had a governor to fight against A friendly intercourse was kept up between the two commanders, and, under date of April 28th, 1768, even Mrs. Taylor was honoured by an epistle in Brigadier Haldimand's quaint English:—"Captain Jenkins' return to St. Augustine furnishes me with the opportunity madam of presenting to you my respectful compliments and thanks for your kind remembrance. I flattered myself that I would be able to pay them in person as soon as the Court Martial should be over, but other unavoidable business detains me here and will oblige me to visit the Lakes, and perhaps the Mis- sissippy, so that I could only trust upon our appointment at cannon hill where I sincerely whish to find Mrs. Taylor in perfect health and happily returned amongst her friends. The pilgrimage we undergo in this new and disagreeable part of the World will qualify us the more for the enjoyment of Old England. Mrs. Pylot tells me she wright you a long letter with all the news of this place, Mrs. Indy good fortune will surprize and please you, and you will be at a loss Madam to form an Idea of her Conqueror. I hope Haldi behaves well and is faithfull to you, if not I beg you will give him another name for fear he should give you a false impression of my way of thinking. Captain Jenkins will tell you Madam how Roses familly is taken care of and how it has increased. 14 are born 75 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND l'-l within this ten days all very pretty, I purpose sending them all to you by the 1st opportunity, he will likewise give you a description of our farms and gardens, of the success of a silk manufaction I have established here, etc., but I must apprays you Madam that he being very partial in favour of East Florida, great allowance is to be made on our side, at my return from the Mississippy I will take the liberty to give you the description of that Paradys; many people are going thither with the Lieut.-Governor at their head, all expecting to form large estates but only a few have money to begin with. Give me leave Madam to assure you of my sincere whishes for the success of all that may contribute to your happiness, having the honour to be with respect Madam your most obedient humble servant." He was quite a ladies' man in a courtly, dignified fashion that appealed to gentlewomen like Mrs. Gage, to whom he often sent compliments and thanks for apples or other favours received. In a letter to Captain Ross, of August 10th, he notes the arrival of a Mr. Blackwell at Pensacola whose wife is a pleasant addition to a small society:— "Half a dozen more such agreeable ladies would enable us to form an Assembly and sometimes to forget our situation, but at present, having so few objects to divert our minds, we are apt to represent this place much worse than it is." Another lady, Mrs. Moultrie, remembers him "with great pleasure and esteem," and of still another he writes, "my best 76 SURVEYS MOBILE RIVER AND BAY respects and thanks to Mrs. Sowers for the large Collection of Good Pickels she was so kind as to send me. It would give pleasure had I anything to present worth her acceptance in return, but what can a poor West Floridan offer more than good Wishes which he sincerely prays may constantly attend you. P.S. I thank you for the Reeding glass it answers werry well and if you'll be so good to appley to Mr. Hugh Wallace he will pay for it." He found the Spaniards troublesome neighbours, with designs upon the British forts on the Mississippi. The French hated their rule and there was much dissatisfaction at New Orleans of which the brigadier was advised to take advantage by luring French settlers into Florida, the only hope for that country. It would be greatly to the advantage of the English if they could make an entrance to the Father of Waters without passing New Orleans, and one of Haldimand's projects was to see if the purpose could not be effected by deepening the Iberville river and joining it with a canal to the Mississippi. He went on a voyage of inspection in person with Mr. Sowers, the engineer. Any day it was expected that Louisiana might rise in revolt against Spain to place herself under British protection, and the commander at Pensacola was just the man to be on the alert for such a contingency; but in the meantime'his orders from Gage were to have as little as possible to do with New Orleans. According to a modern American historian, 77 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the survey Haldimand caused to be made 01 the Mobile river and bay is " the most important act of the British occupation of Florida that has come down to us." There was a great outcry among the inhabitants of West Florida when it was decided to remove nearly all the troops to St. Augustine, though the evacuation of the outposts was explained to the Indians as being for their advantage. The lives and properties of the settlers were in no danger, but they preferred to make money out of the soldiers rather than till their lands, of which not fifty acres were under cultivation, though the soil was excellent a short distance inland. The people of Pensacola sent a petition to the king, entreating him not to ruin his "Emporium of the West," but the soldiers went to St. Augustine nevertheless. There was even talk of taking them to Charleston to be ready for a sudden call northwards in case Boston should continue the agitation over the Stamp Act, but two regiments from Ireland were sent to New England instead. Before leaving Pensacola, Haldimand paid a visit to New Orleans, ostensibly for the purpose of disposing of provisions not to be taken with the troops, and it is also on record that he bought a negro slave who escaped and was returned to him in irons; but no doubt his chief aim was to see for himself the state of affairs between the French and the Spaniards. A few weeks later it culminated in a 78 REVOLUTION IN LOUISIANA revolution, Don Ulloa was banished and the French flag raised. The Mexican method, it appeared, would not do for Frenchmen, and Haldimand contrasted Spain's attempt to govern the people of a different nationality most unfavourably with England's, instancing the French Canadians, who he said were thoroughly contented and learning to speak the language of their conqueror. It had been decided to erect barracks at St. Augustine, with bricks from Charleston, S.C., "the best on the continent," but when Haldimand realized the scarcity of labour be judged it might be better to have them built of wood in New York or New Jersey and sent to St. Augustine ready to be put up. He bought a farm in that district and called it Mon Plaisir, but he was ordered back to Pensacola within a year and it was left in charge of a soldier and his wife who sowed corn but reaped none and did not raise fowls enough to pay for their feed. "A master's eye often does more than twenty other eyes and hands besides," his correspondent wrote, but his indigo planting proved a success and gained a better price at a London sale than that from Carolina. Finally a Prussian officer was settled on Mon Plaisir. General Gage was concerned about the revolution in Louisiana, and in the spring of 1769, ordered the brigadier to inform himself upon the best methods of attacking that country. It would be easy to conquer at present, Haldimand answered, 79 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND though Spain could protect it with 500 or 600 troops if the inhabitants who knew the country were her friends, but they were not, and would gladly embrace British rule. By November of that year, however, the Spaniards had sent reinforcements to New Orleans under Count O'Reilly, and a counter revolution was effected. Haldimand's 3,000 men were no more than were necessary to keep the peace within the borders of Louisiana, but Gage deemed it advisable to send Haldimand back to take up the deserted posts in West Florida, though that officer maintained the fleet to be the best protection of British interests. It was in February, 1770, that Haldimand once more made Pensacola his headquarters, dividing his troops between that post and Mobile. St. Augustine had been a livelier place, if one may judge by the concerts, assemblies and private dancing parties given there, though an officer writing to Haldimand after he had left declared that they now lived like hermits and prayed for the return of some of his company that they might not utterly lose themselves in the fields of indigo and rice that had sprung up with astonishing rapidity. Haldimand was advised to sell out his northern property, invest in negroes and turn planter in East Florida, but West Florida was again his lot, with its troublesome civil governor. The brigadier had the strongest objections to building a new government house within the fort 80 RUMOURS OF WAR though Gage had said, the precedent having been established, it would be hard to find a governor who would live anywhere else. Haldimand and Chester wrangled about it until the king sent orders that the house was to be built, when Haldimand did it with a good grace, and in the end made a friend of the governor, practically yielding him the command of the fort and retaining to himself only the direction of the troops. It was at length decided that the long-talked-of barracks should be built at Pensacola, and besides preparing plans for them, Haldimand busied himself improving the defences of the harbour, till he declared that when he obtained the extra field- pieces he wanted they would be the strongest on the continent. In a letter marked secret and confidential Gage told him that war with Spain was impending and Louisiana must be the first point of attack; to which Haldimand replied that it would not be hard to take New Orleans and suggested the best means to be adopted. Rumours of war continued throughout the next winter and in March the West Floridan commander was warned to be on his guard against invasion either from Louisiana or from the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, but by May the scare was over though the brigadier judged the calm to be only temporary. Spain did recover her ancient colony of Florida in 1781, but by that time Haldimand had been removed to far different scenes. 81 1 II SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND While in Canada Haldimand had had little or no occasion to speak English, but his knowledge of the language was much increased during his stay in Florida, though he still corresponded in French with General Amherst, to whom, on March 12th, 1773, he wrote from Pensacola as follows:—"During the sixteen years that I have been in this country,^ I have always been employed in services exacting expenses which exceeded my revenues; however, sir, I assure you I have never drawn any advantage from the service beyond my pay; 1 have despised and I hope that I always will despise all other advantage of whatever nature it may be; you may judge from this, sir, that my situation is not easy ; and that as those who have supported me awaited this epoch to be reimbursed for the advances they have made me, I am left with no other resource than to place myself in a retreat where, by sustained economy, I shall have power to begin to pay my debts." But the English ministry, whatever other mistakes it might make, valued the services of an honest man and refused to dispense with those of Frederick Haldimand. I 82 I • m^t:\m \tM\m(' ii CHAPTER VI COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AT NEW YORK WHEN General Gage obtained leave of absence and went to England for a year to attend to his private affairs, he recommended Haldimand as his successor to the command at New York, and his advice, joined to that of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, was accepted by the British ministry, though Lord Barrington informed Haldimand he owed his promotion to the king alone. A ship was despatched to Florida to bring northward the new major- general, a naturalized British subject, and colonel commandant of the 2nd battalion of his old regiment, now the 60th foot. He was welcomed by an officer's guard on landing, while a salute of seventeen guns was fired from the fort. Haldimand hated parade of any kind, but Gage had left instructions that he was to be received with due ceremony, it being necessary at that time to omit none of the customary means for upholding the honour of the Crown. Bronzed with his six years in Florida, satisfied with the work he had done there, but pleased to escape another summer in the south, the general, now a man of fifty-five, found himself fronting difficulties of far greater magnitude than those he had left behind him, though they did not appear so 83 N SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND at the first. All this commotion over paying a trifling tax upon tea could not appeal to the sympathy of a Swiss soldier of fortune whose youth had been spent in lands where the people were taxed as a matter of course for the prosecution of wars in which they had no interest except that their strong young men were taken away, to be returned maimed and helpless, or not at all. Frederick Haldimand was no democrat. He saw the British colonists already grown rich and prosperous beyond the middle classes of any European country he knew, and he could echo the opinion of Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts:—"The prevalence of a spirit of opposition to government in the plantation is the natural consequence of the great growth of colonies so far remote from the parent state, and not the effect of oppression in the king or his servants, as the promoters of this spirit would have the world to believe." Whatever the cause, the ferment was there, and six months after the change of command at New York it came to a head in Boston on December 16th, 1773, when a band of sixty men, half of them disguised as Mohawks, went on board three vessels, burst open 380 chests of tea, which they flung into the harbour. This " Indian caper " Haldimand believed was not generally approved by the people of Massachusetts. Plymouth had sent in a strong protest against the proceedings and many were of the opinion that the city should pay the East 84 THE DAWN OF REBELLION India Company for the tea. He decided it was not his duty to enforce acts of parliament, and resolved to look on in silence at the " follies of a spoiled and ignorant people " till the civil power called upon him to interfere, when he would do so in accordance with the constitution. Such were his instructions from the British minister, who praised his temper and prudence in not placing the tea under the protection of the soldiery, as it might have been the cause of contention between populace and military. Lord Dartmouth was striving merely to enforce the principle of the supremacy of parliament. Once acknowledged, he was willing to let it be ignored, and to give the Americans all the liberty they craved; but there were in the cabinet others less wise, headed by King George himself, weak and stubborn, bent upon asserting his own authority and putting an end to " unwarrantable pretensions in the colonies." Haldimand had written to England, stating his doubts upon the wisdom of closing the port of Boston, and anticipating the effect of isolating that city. As he had foretold, the other provinces drew closer to Massachusetts, and the first step towards a general union was taken. The same mail that brought news of the government's intentions concerning refractory Boston brought private letters disapproving of the same, from men of character and property in the mother country, thus confirming the Americans in their " chimerical ideas." The military authorities, doing their best to 85 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND avoid an open rupture, were not encouraged in their thankless task by the receipt of newspapers from London voicing a popular sympathy with the movement against colonial taxation, nor by the tone of the local press, which grew every day bolder and more independent. There had been no strong feeling in New York against the landing of the tea consigned there until Boston set the example, but now the whole town was on the qui vive over what was to happen when the ships should arrive at the Hook. Luckily for Haldimand, they were kept away by contrary winds till he had time to receive his instructions. " Happy will be this Province," he wrote, " if it can avoid the imprudence of its neighbours." It was a time of hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The commander-in-chief was the type of man who could remain unmoved in the midst of turmoil and dissension. He showed no anxiety, refused to change the disposition of his troops, but quietly saw that the artillery and stores were put in a place of safety at Governor's Island. His appearance, tall, stately and handsomely dressed, as he rode about the town or drove in his carriage was enough to inspire with confidence the wavering loyalists who could rest assured that no mob would ever gain the upper hand in New York so long as General Haldimand commanded the troops. He had his own private troubles, apart from those of the provinces. Not the least of these was his 86 FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES financial embarrassment. This was no time to economize in anything that supported the dignity of his position, and he found his expenses mounting far higher than he had expected. Florida had been a dear place of residence, but it had not been essential to keep up the same style of living there as in New York. He was sure that neither king nor ministry wished him to ruin himself in the performance of his duties, but it was exceedingly difficult for a proud man and a foreigner to appeal upon such a subject to men who were engrossed and perplexed with matters of so much larger import Sir Jeffrey Amherst, a rich man, had not charged the government for his firing and lodging while in New York, though his predecessors had done so, and his successors could not afford to be so liberal By selling some of his property in Maryland, Haldimand gained temporary financial relief. It was during this year, 1778, that he paid a visit to his relatives in Pennsylvania, whether the first or not it is impossible to state. Jacob Haldeman (1722- 1783), his cousin, like himself a lineal descendant of Honnete Gaspard, though not born in America, had been there for fifteen years when Frederick came out. Jacob had owned land in Rapho township, Lancaster county, since 1741, when he would be but nineteen years of age. According to tradition the general proposed taking one of his cousin's sons with him to New York, but the offer was refused, perhaps from political reasons, since the 87 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Pennsylvania Haldemans were prominent on the popular side. The general contented himself with advancing the sons of his younger brother, Jean Abraham, "burgess of Yverdun, merchant and banker of Turin," who had seven sons and one daughter. Of these Antoine Francois (1741-1817), the London merchant, was the eldest, and Louis Haldimand perhaps the youngest. At any rate, while endeavouring to interest General Amherst in 1773, the uncle remarks that " Louys," " who was born since I came to America," is now sixteen years of age. The general probably recommended military schooling in England, for the arrival of the lad from Switzerland was noted the next year, and in the following spring Sir Jeffrey wrote that Ensign Haldimand had made good progress in the academy, bore an exceedingly good character, and should go to his uncle. A month later a passage was taken for Louis to America, and the general must have been eager to see him, as a correspondent in London had written: "He is so exceedingly well-looked, and from every appearance is what you could wish. There is a smartness in his air not unlike the brother that I knew." Uncle and nephew may have passed one another on the Atlantic, since the general was in London by the time the ensign arrived in Boston. Having had experience of the disagreeable friction so common between civil and military authorities, 88 1 HALDIMAND WITHOLDS TROOPS the commander-in-chief was careful to keep on good terms with Governor Tryon, whose vanity he criticizes in a letter to Gage. There was sufficient occasion for quarrelling as the governor more than once requested troops to be sent where the general deemed it unnecessary, and the former wagered that he would have his way. "Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better" Tryon discovered when he had Haldimand to deal with. The soldiers were not marched off to quell Indian disturbances upon the frontiers for which the colonists were to blame, nor were they despatched against the New Hampshire rioters, who disputed the rights of settlers from New York on the east side of Lake Champlain. In a letter to Governor Tryon dated September 1st, 1778, the commander gave his reasons:—"I have just received the honour of your letter of this day's date, with the minutes of the Council therewith sent, on which I beg to make the following observations. That in the present circumstances of affairs in America, it appears to me of a dangerous tendency to employ Regular Troops where there are Militia Laws and where the Civil Magistrates can at any time call upon its trained inhabitants to aid and assist them in the performance of their office, and the execution of the Laws in force against Rioting, and for the protection of the lives and property of His Majesty's subjects. That the idea that a few lawless Vagabonds can prevail in such a Government as that of New York, as to 89 n i it SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND oblige its governor to have recourse to the Regular troops to suppress them, appears to me to carry with it such reflection of weakness as I am afraid would be attended with bad consequences, and render the authority of the Civil Magistrate, when not supported by troops, contemptible to the Inhabitants." The king himself supported the general's view and gave orders that the regulars were not to be called out except in cases of absolute and unavoidable necessity. In his own elevation Haldimand did not forget the hardships of those above whom he had risen. In one of his first letters to the ministry after his appointment at New York, he asked that the pay allowed for Crown Point and Fort Pitt, both destroyed, might be given to the commanding officers in Florida, but the request was refused. His old comrades in arms must have been gratified, however, by the active interest of the commander- in-chief, his pleasure at the news of harmony existing at length between them and the civil authorities, his desire that recruiting parties should be sent to England to fill the gaps in their ever-thinning ranks, and they became the more anxious to carry out his orders for the speedy and economical completion of the works he had planned at Pensacola. Florida was not so forlornly out of the world since Haldimand had departed thence to the head of affairs. Whatever may have been his personal opinion of 90 ir^QiiF8" INDIAN TROUBLES Governor Tryon, it did not influence his conduct As that gentleman journeyed northward, the general sent instructions to the officers in command at Albany and Montreal to treat him with fitting honour, and give him all the assistance in their power. When the governor's house in New York was burned by rioters on almost the last night of the year 1773, and he himself was forced to return to England, the commander-in-chief gave a grand farewell ball in his honour. Dancing and feasting went on in the city though there was trouble enough brewing beneath the surface there, and much of it always in evidence at the outposts. Haldimand had seen much of the Indians both in the west and south, and was disinclined to believe in the stories told of their unprovoked attacks upon the frontiers. When he heard of two Georgia families having been slain by the Creeks he was almost certain that other settlers were at fault, and wished that he could visit the locality himself for investigation. It was ever his impulse to obtain a thorough personal knowledge upon every subject before forming an opinion, but as he rose in his profession he was obliged to become more dependent upon the testimony of others. A commander-in-chief could not leave his post and move about the country with the unceremonious ease of a subaltern. He knew that Indian disorders were chiefly caused by the determination of settlers to push their way into Indian territory 91 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND though they should leave miles of uncultivated country in the rear, and he knew too that the eagerness of the south for troops arose from the desire to make money out of them. So he declared that the provinces of Virginia and Georgia must protect their own borders, as the whole of their frontier inhabitants were not worth an Indian campaign. To take the side of the Indian was not a common trait among British commanders at that time, and Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, wrote the general an extremely sharp letter, blaming him for having told Lord Dartmouth, without consulting him, about the outrages upon some Indians in his province who had killed several white vagabonds. It was hard to please everyone, but so far as can be judged by his correspondence, Haldimand had a sincere desire to deal justly and to act rightly towards all men. His abilities were well tested in helping to decide what should be done about the settlers at Post Vincennes and on the Illinois, a subject that Lords North and Dartmouth found embarrassing in the extreme. They did not think the pioneers in those parts should be driven from their homes for want of a suitable government, but it was not so easy to determine what form that government should take. A memorial was presented to Haldimand by some of the inhabitants requesting the establishment of civil rule, which, however, part of the people did 92 EXTREME PUNISHMENT not want, and he himself was of the opinion that a military government was better than none. By the passage of the Quebec Act in 1774, the boundaries of that province were extended so as. to include the whole of the territory in question— from the northern and western borders of Pennsylvania, thence along the Ohio to the Mississippi The establishment of French law and the Roman Catholic religion over so large a tract of country, was naturally displeasing to the British colonists, both east and west, but the settlers from Canada were satisfied, particularly those about Vincennes, who were also relieved to know that too close enquiry was not to be made into the titles of their lands acquired from the Indians. "A perfect judge of every military matter," Haldimand was called, but his sympathy with soldiers never interfered with his sense of justice, and he directed that misdemeanours escaping the notice of the civil law should not on that account evade the military. That the civil law could be sufficiently severe is testified by the punishment meted out to a deserter found guilty of burglary. He was cropped, whipped, branded on the forehead, and then turned over to the military authorities, who would probably shoot him. Truly the common soldier of that day had no easy punishment if he transgressed, as some of the records of courtmartial bear witness. Five hundred lashes were meted out to the man who stole wampum from an Indian, and 93 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND 1,000 apiece to some rioters of the Royal Americans. When a soldier received 500 lashes for firing at a deer or a pigeon without orders, he could imagine the extent of his punishment should he venture to fire at a human being before the word of command was given; but it must have been desperately hard for many a high-spirited private to endure with patience the insults and bodily injury often inflicted by city rioters without having recourse to the retaliation within his power. A discipline of lashes is not calculated to develop the finer feelings of men, and when the hands of these were unloosed by actual war, they were apt to revenge past wrongs upon nearest heads, though innocent. General Murray writing from tranquillity in Mahor, expresses his horror of civil war and is sure that Haldimand does not intend to settle American troubles by force of arms, there being so much more glory to be gained by a conference than by a battle. He sends a present of olives and anchovies to his old friend whose honourable conduct while in Canada had made the deepest impression and should ever make him wish for further opportunities of showing his affectionate regard. Gage too, safe in England out of the turmoil, wrote upon the all-important subject of the tea that "had put the whole continent in commotion." He hoped it might be introduced at least into one province from which the others could be supplied and the smugglers undersold. Haldimand's reply (in French) dated 94 RIOTING IN NEW YORK New York, May 4th, 1774, reads:—$| am charmed, sir, ^o see by your last letter that the affairs of the Hou$e will be examined by both chambers of parliament I await with impatience what the result will be and it is very fortunate that you will be at hand to explain the difficulties that present themselves in a country where the laws have lost their force and where one can find no magistrate who is willing to support the dignity of the law and help the military. I understand well the evil consequences caused by precipitate measures among a nation always given to blaming the military."1 When the long-delayed tea ships came sailing into the harbour of New York in the month of May, fancying their tedious voyage was ended, they were sent sailing out again, and one captain who had landed eighteen chests with his other cargo, had the chagrin of seeing them made into a bonfire upon the shore. The governor had agreed to protect the unloading with the militiq., but when the time came he was afraid to entrust the duty to them, having been told that they had agreed among themselves that the tea should not be landed. For 1 Haldimand's private diary, January 17th, 1786:—"When General Paterson set out for Boston, he had express orders from the minister to report the state of things. He did so without reserve. The letter was shown to the King, who, preoccupied with what General Gage had told him, paid no attention to that letter, saying that Mr. Gage having spent so long a time in America must know that country and the character of the inhabitants better than General Paterson." The latter had been present when Gage "told the King (speaking of Boston) that he had sufficient troops to bring these people to reason." 95 suss SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND this the commander-in-chief thought they should be disbanded. A staunch lover of law and order, he blamed all that was done upon the "mob" and was ever ready to believe that the respectable portion of the inhabitants was upon the king's side. In his opinion firmness only was needed to bring the wayward back to their duty. In April Gage wrote that the people of Boston had at length tired out their strongest friends. As a native born Briton it was considered best that he should resume the chief command, now that war seemed inevitable, but Haldimand was to remain on his staff as major-general. He continued in charge at New York during the summer of 1774, while Gage was in Boston. Exactly two years before the virtual declaration of independence Haldimand wrote to his superior officer that there was popular talk of the colonies forming a general congress, and hoped that government would take steps to interfere, but government was powerless in the matter and the congress became an accomplished fact. Deputies from all quarters collected at Philadelphia, those from the south arriving in carriages drawn by six horses, quite in oriental style, and there ensued the passing of what Haldimand called "disagreeable resolutions." General Gage was given a brilliant reception upon his return to Boston but he would have preferred more evidence of submission to authority. 96 GATHERING STORM CLOUDS It did not look promising to find the governor, chief justice and many of the leading citizens quartered at the island fortress, Castle William, where they had taken refuge from the fury of the mob. Mr. Adams had threatened the tarring and feathering of those who dared to sign the address of welcome to the general, and the assembly had applied for a fast instead of a feast The New Yorkers, Gage hoped, would not be fools enough to bring about the closing of their port also, as they knew what it meant, and a few weeks would probably suffice to bring the Boston- ians to their senses. The "hot-headed gentlemen" of Virginia had been passing some treasonable resolutions in their assembly, but these were not likely to affect the north. On July 3rd he wrote to his major-general:—"I rejoice that you conduct yourselves with so much discretion at New York, and that Philadelphia inclines to follow your example," while Haldimand wished Gage were as fortunate in his surroundings. There had been a burning of Lord North in effigy at New York, despite the mayor's efforts at prevention, but no serious results were feared beyond the further encouragement to Boston. Everywhere there was talk of calling upon the troops for aid, but Haldimand hoped rebellious action might be avoided, though it was daily expected in Massachusetts, and unless the first uprising were promptly crushed, the worst effects were to be feared in 97 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the other colonies. Already the stubborn Bostonians had been joined by the people of Connecticut, and erelong New York was threatened with absorption into the New England States, if she refused to join them, since Virginia purposed to be one of two republics, with the Delaware for her northern boundary. Once upon a time, no further back than 1766, bands had been forbidden to play upon the city streets while passing a church during public worship, but now there was no peace to be found even within the congregations. The Episcopalians and the Presbyterians fell to wrangling that summer, but as Haldimand assured Gage both were equally opposed to government, the latter hoped it was true that they had had a battle, though it was no great matter which party won. These sects were safest employed in fighting one another, like the Creeks and Choctaws, whose wars Gage regarded as a blessing in disguise "since they would never bear with the behaviour of our people." The state of public affairs made property holders exceedingly anxious, and Haldimand being one, he wrote to his friend, Thomas Willing, of Pennsylvania, to ask if his grants in that province had been taken up. Willing, he observes, seems to harbour ill-feeling towards the mother country, but for himself he has only regret "for the rash enthusiasm of his neighbours on the north, and fears that this fine continent will be plunged into civil war, 98 vr~ DOMESTIC FORESIGHT through their imprudent conduct preventing what moderation, equity and temper are more likely to obtain." In view of the threatened non-importation, the general asks Mr. Willing to be kind enough to send him another pipe of the excellent Madeira he spared before, and had he known old Omar he might have added, " Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute; Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter Fruit." 99 I CHAPTER VII FROM NEW TO OLD ENGLAND BY the middle of September things were looking very serious indeed for General Gage in Boston, there having been a county-meeting at Suffolk whereat it was resolved that obedience was owed to the king only so long as he kept his part of the contract in preserving the chartered rights. There was a general call to arms in defence of these, cannon had been taken for the Charleston Battery, and the New Englanders believed that they alone could fight old England, since they could not count upon the support of New York or Philadelphia. " All who will not promise to join and contribute, or are obnoxious to the demagogues are drove into Boston, where many from comfortable homes have little ready money and are in great distress," wrote Gage to Haldimand. The passage of the Quebec Act, confirming the French Canadians in the use of their language, laws and religion had been a cause of offence to the New England clergy, who affirmed that the king and his general were both Roman Catholics. It was no easy task to keep so large a body of troops within the bounds of civil law, but Gage was determined "to wait till we receive the first blow, that no act of ours may serve to 101 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND encourage rebellion by giving it the name of defence." He was impatient for the arrival of his major- general, whom he had summoned, not only for the reinforcement of his troops, but for the support of his presence and advice. Haldimand's departure from New York was delayed by the difficulty of securing transports, owing to the ill-will of the people, and the autumn was well advanced before he joined his chief. They spent the winter together in the hot-bed of rebellion, and hoped at times for a reaction in public sentiment, though they were not encouraged by the belated news that reached them from London of how American affairs were viewed by the king and his ministers. In an era preceding the steamship and the telegraph it was impossible for the best intentioned government to keep abreast of events in distant colonies, and the orders sent to its servants in command were often found to be inapplicable to existing conditions at the time they were received. Congress sitting at Concord passed resolutions stamped with bravado, in Haldimand's opinion, but the New York assembly was being hard pressed to agree with them, and Maryland and Pennsylvania had already ordered 100,000 men to be armed against the government. Each side was determined not to strike the first blow, and the British generals sat with folded hands, surrounded by rebels drilling for war. But it was some satisfaction to know that their 102 PERSONAL LOSSES own troops were behaving well in spite of much provocation. Haldimand wrote to Amherst that "the evils threatened proceed from Great Britain which has nothing to gain by the struggle." While Sir Jeffrey was flattering himself that the news from America was so favourable, that the people would " return to their duty and avoid the necessity of using force," force had actually been used, and Haldimand was reported to have been killed in the skirmish at Lexington, on April 19th. As a matter of fact he was not there at all, nor did he know anything of the battle till he heard of it from the barber who came to shave him. In a letter to Captain Holland, which that gentleman displayed in New York, and which was much commented upon, Haldimand openly disclaimed all responsibility for the affair at Concord. He was more concerned about the property he had left behind in New York, now that all friends of government had left the city and mob rule seemed to be paramount Being the sort of man who collected an establishment about him wherever he went, he had had a house of his own for his short term in New York, horses, poultry, and of course a garden. On his removal to Boston a gardener was left in charge who being given to liquor presented no formidable front to the encroachments of would- be plunderers, and the general's friends wrote him, that everything he owned was being stolen or destroyed. This was unpleasant news for a gentleman 108 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND who had a womanish fondness for his possessions. He was not even flattered to learn that the rebel commander-in-chief had shown appreciation of his taste in residences. " Washington has taken up his summer quarters at your house on Richmond Hill." Haldimand was perturbed too about the fate of his good house in Pensacola that he hoped to sell for a governor's residence, if the populace would spare it till time showed whether or not there were to be any more royal governors. Once the hope of a peaceful settlement of affairs was dispelled, the general's letters took a sterner tone. "Yield" was not a word in his vocabulary. He had been reared in a rigorous school and all his life never learned to give way except in matters that concerned only himself. No palliative public measures for him; they but indicated weakness, and he congratulated the ministry that the necessity for nipping American treason in the bud had arisen at a time when their hands were comparatively free from European complications. He suggested the employment of the proffered Russian troops, if England had not enough of her own, to abolish the New England governments, and recommended the closing of all the ports from Halifax to Florida, so as to stop exportation entirely and set up the country against the towns. Though Boston had begun the trouble, he considered Philadelphia even more obstreperous and warned the government that its colonies were becoming more dangerous 104 RETURNS TO LONDON than a hostile foreign power. No doubt he often pictured to himself what Frederick the Great would do under the circumstances, but he was now in the service of George the Little, from whom no Crom- wellian measures were to be expected. General Gage was now more than sixty years old and had never been of an active temperament Since hostilities had actually commenced, he was likely to retire, in which case the chief command would again devolve upon Haldimand. The ministry, preferring to have a natural born subject, recalled the Swiss general in the summer of 1775. He left Boston at short notice and it was rumoured he was leaving the service for good, whereat the sentiment of the soldiers was expressed in the letter of one subordinate to another:—"The regret and good wishes of ye whole army follow him, his experience, his great abilities, his integrity and disinterestedness will never be forgot by them." Surely it was a welcome change from the hard winter in Boston where he had been reviled and pointed at as one of the "boiled crabs" whose presence affronted a liberty-crazed populace, to return to London in the month of June, there to be heartily thanked by the king and his ministers for the skilful execution of his late arduous duties. Sir Jeffrey Amherst wrote to Anthony Francis Haldimand in London, asking to be immediately informed of his uncle's arrival in order that he might come up to town from the seaside to 105 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND interview him before he made his bow to the king. At court and in the drawing-rooms of the great the general was equally well received. America was on every man's tongue and there was none who did not eagerly seize an opportunity of hearing the very latest about those incomprehensibly strong- willed colonists from one who had just returned from living among them. His advice was asked officially also and it would not tend to incline the ministry towards conciliation. Who knows what the effect might have been upon the measures adopted and upon the ultimate result of the whole contest had Haldimand, who spoke with authority, given different counsel? But that was impossible for a man of his character and upbringing. His private belief was that Chatham was the one statesman who could have satisfactorily surmounted the difficulties, but now it was almost too late to hope for a pacific settlement The change of rule in America, sooner or later, was as inevitable as the change of seasons, or as the breaking away from the nest of a covey of young ducks as soon as they can swim alone in rough water. That Canada did not break off too was evidence merely that she was not of the same brood, but a foundling in the flock, slower in growth, an ugly duckling that might one day turn out to be a swan. Haldimand had an easy and enjoyable life for the next three years and was in no haste to accept 106 &m FURTHER REWARDS AND HONOURS further commands abroad. In September, 1775, he was appointed inspector-general of the forces in the West Indies, but as there is no record of his ever having gone there, the office was doubtless a sinecure. Some indemnity was owing to him for his ill-paid services in America, of which Lord Gecrge Germaine, the new colonial secretary, sent a summary to Lord Barrington, stating that Haldimand had been subjected to great expense the year he was in New York and had received no additional pay. He had gone to Boston and set up an establishment there, thinking he was to stay, and his expenditure had not been " wantonly incurred by means of an empty or unnecessary parade," but was unavoidable in his position. When recalled, he had left the bulk of his effects behind him, including two houses, one in Boston and one in New York, for which he would have to pay rent in the spring. It was bad enough to be taken away from the scene of action without having "very considerably impaired his fortune." The war office at once awarded £3,000 to Haldimand in acknowledgment of his financial outlay as commander-in-chief, and on January 1st, 1776, he was promoted to the rank of general in America, and lieutenant-general in the whole army. To a man whose profession was the chief thing in life these honours must have been exceedingly gratifying and they would serve to inspire him with a still more ardent desire to serve the Crown. Of the 107 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND British nation as a whole he knew but little. The language and constitution were alike foreign to him and he was unfitted to read aright the signs of the times either in England or America, but that did not prevent him from making warm friends among the men with whom he came in contact, both in higher and lower positions than his own. With all the entertainment and lionizing he received, his mind could not immediately detach itself from the drama in which he had taken a leading part, and the American mails would be of supreme importance. They brought letters from Wallace, his New York agent, telling of the affair of June 17th, near Charleston, of the resolutions passed in congress which bordered on a declaration of war, of the loss at Bunker's Hill, of the want of energy displayed by General Gage, the massing of provincial troops in rebellion and the report that General Haldimand was to return to the scene of action in command of a large body of mercenaries from Hanover. More interesting still were the letters of Major Hutcheson, his late secretary, who wrote from Boston, not long after Haldimand's departure:— "There are a number of your friends of the Lower rank of officers Remember you with the greatest Respect and Esteem, and I wish every General Officer who may leave this country may be as truly Respected and their absence as much regretted. I hope, Sir, you will not forget pushing 108 rr NEWS FROM BOSTON early for some reward for your long and faithfull Services. The promises of the great are not to be depended on and the sooner you are independent of them the better." Ensign Louis Haldimand had arrived in Boston, and of him Hutcheson wrote that he liked his profession and would make a good soldier:—"Miss Leechmore and Miss Birch have undertaken to teach him English and give him Tea, as often as he has leisure to attend them and he promises much to himself from their Instructions." Mrs. Fair child, the general's housekeeper, who had been left in charge of his Boston dwelling, was in the habit of giving the major and the nephew "a little dinner in the parlour" when they were not engaged elsewhere. The dinings-out were few, as provisions were becoming too scarce in Boston to allow the people to entertain. They had no money to spend upon luxuries of any kind, but Hutcheson managed to sell a gun and some watches, though he found difficulty in disposing of the general's tea urn, and was sending to him in England his "silver Epergne, as nobody will buy it, as times go." Of public affairs he wrote:—"I wish we could find the people of England as unanimous in support of their just rights, as we are to defend them. There has not been a Man of War from England since you sailed nor have we heard from New York since my return, we are entirely ignorant of what's doing at home or on this Continent, except that we are ourselves 109 I; It SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND surrounded by a Considerable Army, entrenched for fifteen miles round us, with redoubts full of men on every hill near this Place. Washington has his head Quarters at Cambridge." The major was most anxious to learn what was thought in England about the Lexington affairs and found it hard to be so long without hearing. Gage's recall and the arrival of Howe to take command was the next news of importance:—"The dependents of the present Commander-in-Chief down in the mouth; the court being paid to the rising sun." The worthy major, having taken Louis Haldimand under his wing in the absence of his uncle, thought that neither he nor the ensign received the attention that was their due, but by December of that year the lad was promoted to be lieutenant. Erelong he developed an orthodox number of expensive tastes, and another of Haldimand's correspondents advised him to bring his nephew under his own eye. Mrs. Fairchild took leave of Boston that winter, and sailed for England in a returning transport. With the spring came word of the troops leaving for Halifax, accompanied by many loyalist families reduced to the extremity of destitution. The British marched out of Boston, while Washington marched in, and a general confiscation of Tory property followed. So late as July 10th, 177(3, Major Hutcheson believed that nine out of the thirteen provinces preferred to keep up the British connection, and six months later a correspondent 110 AFFAIRS IN CANADA of Haldimand in St Augustine wrote him that 1,000 men backed by the navy were all that was necessary to dissolve the union. A new regiment, to be called the Royal Highland Emigrants, was being raised in Canada by Lieutenant-Colonel Allan MacLean, but there was little other good news from that quarter. A letter from Quebec dated July 20th, 1775, states:— "There is not yet a single Canadian raized, nor is there any appearance of it, these people have lost all their Spirit and seem indeed very averse to fighting, nor can Mr. Carleton get a single Regiment of militia to embody, they are all frightened out of their Witts, and the most violent of them only talk of defending their own Province, many of them would lay down their Arms to the Yankies did they but appear, in fact the Seeguneurs have no influence nor can they command out a single man." Better things in the future are hoped for by the writer, but the winter brought only tidings of the surrender of the forts on Lake Champlain and Montgomery's capture of Montreal. Would Quebec fall too? Haldimand had a personal interest in Canada, as his nephew, Pierre, was stationed upon his seigniory at Pabds, and he had solicited for him the good offices of Lieutenant-Governor Cramah£, but the accounts received were not favourable. Apparently there was no profit to be made out of the fishing resources of the place, since that business was 111 WMm SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND governed by a couple of monopolizing capitalists; nor was the lumber outlook any brighter. Pierre Haldimand thought he would have to go into trade, but there was nothing to be done on the coast. He had not seen Governor Carleton while in Quebec, and so feared he would not find a situation before the spring. In February came the news of General Carle- ton's opportune arrival in Quebec, his success in holding out against the rebel attack, the death of General Montgomery, and Colonel Benedict Arnold's repulse the same night by MacLean and his Emigrants. Major Hutcheson wrote that the king's speech and the addresses of parliament had no effect on the rebels, whom nothing but a good trimming would serve, and the defeat at Quebec was likely to be more efficacious. Governor Carle- ton, to whom the victory was due, did not find favour in the sight of Lord George Germaine, who, historians agree, was not a proper person to be at the helm of colonial affairs in England during a crisis. He was a stupid man, to say the least of it, and one instance of his stupidity was the appointment of General Burgoyne, a court favourite, to command the troops allotted for the defence of Canada, thus deposing Carleton, who was henceforth to be the civil governor only. The governor- general of Canada had been the commander-in-chief of the army both before the conquest and afterwards; therefore Carleton resigned at once, though 112 —r GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA he remained at his post and gave the new commander all the help in his power until his own successor was appointed. Burgoyne's disastrous campaign is a matter of history, and has naught to do with the career of Frederick Haldimand, excepting that upon Carleton's resignation he was appointed governor-general in his place. The news reached him at Yverdun, where he was visiting his family, and it is likely that he had passed the whole summer in Switzerland, travelling with friends and recruiting his health. It was in August that he received and accepted the appointment, and a month later he was in London, anxious, as usual, to be thoroughly posted upon his new duties. There he learned of the injustice done to Carleton, and though he declined to enter into the quarrel between him and Germaine, he feared that the general might suppose he was taking advantage of the situation. Haldimand asked that his own commission might be annulled, and Lord Barring- ton complimented him on the handsomeness of his letter, which, he said, he would show to the king. But Carleton had considered Lord Germaine's disapproval of his military tactics tantamount to a dismissal, and he agreed to stay in Canada only until the arrival of Haldimand, whose appointment he had approved. The new governor was to return to the established rule in commanding the forces also, and one of Carleton's last official letters was to the Prince of Hesse, stating that he "recommended 118 ii; SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND ' the German troops to the care of his successor, who will show every consideration for them." The army of Great Britain at that time amounted to less than one hundred thousand men, and by the end of 1776 more than half of them were in America. For reinforcements she had called upon her ancient allies, the north German states, and during this war employed over twenty thousand of their troops in her colonies. Foreign legions were to be found in every army of Europe, and these particular mercenaries were not deserving of the contempt heaped upon them by narrow-minded provincials. As a class they were above the average of the regular soldier of the time, not only in valour and discipline, but in habits of thrift and economy, sending home many thousands of thalers out of the liberal pay they received from the British. It was the troops from Brunswick that came to Canada, and the journal of their commander, the Baron Riedesel, contains many interesting details of his first impressions of the country in 1776. At Isle aux Coudres he noted the habitant dress, much like that of the Indians, he thought, but suited to the climate: " Over their shirts, which are frequently made of coloured linen or of printed calico, they wear small waistcoats of different stuffs according to the season of the year. Over this again they wear a long jacket of white woollen cloth reaching down to the knees. This is ornamented with all kinds of coloured ribbons, which serve 114 "JlifiiiMiiiii HABITANT COSTUME in the place of buttons. Around the waist they wear a scarf which keeps the waistcoat, or capote, as they style it, close together. This scarf is made of different coloured yarn and makes quite a display. In the winter they wear longer capotes of cloth, or the skins of the porpoise, which they understand perfectly how to prepare for this purpose, having learned it from the Indians. Pantaloons are worn by all the men, summer and winter, with the exception of those who go about a great deal with the savages. "On the outside (of the leggings), where our splatterdashes have buttons is a piece of cloth or fringe, about as broad as a hand, which runs down to the foot and keeps flying round their legs as they walk. This superfluous piece is partly for ornament and partly for use against snakes, who if not noticed will generally bite this piece of cloth, leaving their poison in it For the same reason we shall have the long wide sailor pants introduced in our army. The scarcity of hats causes most everyone to wear red woolen caps, nor if the Canadian wishes to be dressed up will he wear any other colour. " Agriculture is carried on in the same manner as with us, but no winter grain can be raised in Canada. They raise wheat, barley, oats, and a little Indian corn or maize. Everything is sown in the beginning of May and harvested after four months. Peas, beans, lentiles, vetches, all kinds of cabbage, onions and potatoes are also raised. 115 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND . " The farm houses have no pretensions to architectural beauty. They are generally built of long beams cut square, and laid on top of one another and joined at the corners. The inner walls are covered with boards of cedar or pine " and the roofs shingled. They are "but one story high, but are divided into many rooms and are generally very neat An ordinary peasant's house is capacious enough for our whole family. The inhabitants are remarkably civil and obliging, and I hardly think that under similar circumstances our peasants would behave as well." Haldimand was ordered to depart immediately for the scene of his new labours, and that he did embark in the autumn of 1777 is verified by a letter to his intimate friend, General de Bud£, written on board ship on October 9th, in which he says that instead of being off Labrador or Newfoundland, he is only at Plymouth. The winds are contrary, and there seems to be no sign of a change. As well try to get to the moon as to Quebec. If the wind refuses to favour him he will go back to London in a very bad humour—and back he went The St. Lawrence had shut her icy door in his face for that season. It was an ill wind that blew nobody good, as he was free to return to Yverdun for the winter, to take the baths there and to make little journeys with friends for health and recreation combined. He knew there was no pleasant position awaiting him in Canada, but he was not the man to turn his back 116 Tjr 1 ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC upon a duty that promised to be disagreeable. He would be happy should he succeed in doing it, but appearances were unfavourable. The Quebec Gazette of July 2nd, 1778, has this notice of his arrival at his command:—"On Friday last His Majesty's frigate, the Montreal, Stair Douglas, Esq., Commander, arrived here, having on board his Excellency General Haldimand and his suite, and on Saturday noon his Excellency landed. On this occasion the streets from the landing place to the Chateau were lined by the British and Canadian militia and the troops of the garrison. On leaving the frigate the General was saluted by the ships in the river, and on his landing by the garrison. On his arrival at the Chateau he was met by the members of the Legislative Council and by them conducted into the council chamber, where his Commission was read and the usual oaths administered to him." Things were looking better than he had expected, he wjx>te to Bude, though he was being overwhelmed with ceremony. The Gazette published both the address presented to him and his reply:— "We, His Majesty's faithful and loyal British Subjects, the Gentlemen, Merchants and Citizens residing in Quebec, beg leave to congratulate your Excellency on your safe arrival in this City. Permit us to assure your Excellency that we feel the highest satisfaction in having a Gentleman of your conspicuous Abilitys and extensive Knowledge as 117 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND a Successor to our late most worthy Governor, convinc'd that it requires the utmost Exertion of Military Talents and Skill to preserve the public Tranquility at a time when we are so much exposed to Depredations from the unhappy Spirit of Rebellion which so universally prevails amongst His Majesty's Subjects in the neighbouring Provinces. You may rely on our utmost endeavours to Effectuate any measures which may be adopted by your Excellency for the Preservation and Security of the Province; and being truly sensible of the Blessings derived from the glorious Constitution of Great Britain, and sincerely attached to our most gracious Sovereign, we are ready on all Occasions to support with our Lives and Fortunes his Royal Person, Family and Government." "I return you many thanks for this very obliging Address; the handsome mention you make of my worthy Predecessor, your offer of Assistance in the Measures I may find necessary to pursue for the security of the Province, and your determined Resolution to Support His Majesty's Royal Person, Family and Government, are perfectly agreeable to me; relying upon Dispositions so commendable, and convinced of what you can do by what you have already done, I entertain Sanguine Expectations of seeing the Tranquility of the Province fully established, and the Happiness of its Loyal Inhabitants, of every Denomination, secured upon a solid and lasting foundation." 118 ▼" SIR GUY CARLETON Greetings of the same sort awaited him in Montreal, but, far more than these formal speeches, he would appreciate the genuine kindliness of the retiring governor's welcome, his desire to give the best help in his power to his successor. In a letter introducing Sir Guy Carleton to General Bud£, Haldimand told his friend not to be repelled by the cold manners of this new acquaintance, that he was a perfect gentleman and one of the best officers in the service. Of himself he wrote that he was resolutely setting himself to the task of keeping the Canadians from following in the footsteps of their neighbours to the southward, and he hoped his efforts would be seconded by the ministry in England, but in any case he would faithfully serve King George as long as there were four drops of blood in his veins. 119 CHAPTER VIII THE GENERAL IT was Haldimand's destiny never to play a dramatic part but a more difficult one. He was not present at the siege of Quebec to share in the glories won by Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham; his lot was cast with the slower, plodding Amherst As fate had favoured Sir William Johnson in giving him the chance to take Niagara, while Haldimand stayed behind at Oswego, so she denied the latter any special glory in Florida beyond that of being "a meritorious sufferer for the public benefit" In New York and Boston, because he was not British born, he had to come second to General Gage, a man much inferior to himself in energy and intelligence; and finally he was sent to Quebec after the picturesque role of defeating the actual invaders of Canada had already been taken by Sir Guy Carleton. To remain on the defensive was ever the duty assigned him, and how much that meant in the present instance can only be approximately estimated. When the inhabitants of a country are united in their determination to expel the enemy from her borders, it is wonderful what even a sparse population can accomplish with the help of a few regular troops. In the war of 1812, French and 121 I mix film' SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND English Canadians fought shoulder to shoulder against superior forces of American invaders and repeatedly drove them back to their own side of the line, but the situation of affairs was entirely different in 1778. The British method of government had not yet passed its experimental stage. Middle-aged Canadians could talk to the growing boys of the famous campaigns in which they had fought with Montcalm or LeVis, while old men in the chimney corner could recall the glorious days of le grand monarque. As the faults of the family sinner are generally buried with him and naught but his good points remembered, so the hardships undergone during the French regime were soon forgotten. The forced labour without pay, the dreary shovelling of earth to form embankments, the long marches upon empty stomachs, or poor food, the worthless card money given in return for hardly garnered grain—these weighed light as feathers in the scale with brief battles separated by months or years of monotonous toil. Brave stories, handed from father to son, had a preponderating influence in a country whose acquaintance with printing was so extremely slight and recent that not one man in five hundred could read. A scholar with this accomplishment would be the hero of the hour one Sunday in the autumn of 1778, when through some hidden agency there was nailed up outside of every church door in the different parishes a Declaration, adressee Au Nom du Hoi, a tous 122 —T7- ADMIRAL D'ESTAING'S APPEAL les anciens Francois de VAm&rique Septentrionale and signed Estaing. What a whispering and a gesticulating this document created when its full meaning permeated the dullest understanding! "You are French," it began, "you cannot cease to be so." Would parricidal hands be raised against the mother country and her American allies ? "As a nobleman of France, I need not say to those among you born to the same rank that there is but one august house under which a Frenchman can be happy and serve with pleasure. . . . Could the Canadians who saw the brave Marquis (Montcalm) fall in their defence be the enemies of his nephews, fight against their ancient leaders and arm themselves against their relations? At their very name the weapons would fall from their hands 1" A specially insidious appeal was made to the clergy and the whole people was assured that "sooner or later jealous and despotic sovereigns would treat them as * the conquered.'" It is possible that Admiral d'Estaing exceeded his commission in the wording of this proclamation, for France had bound herself not to seek any personal advantage in America through the war, but Washington's suspicions were aroused and he refused to sanction any invasion of Canada in which his allies should take a leading part With his customary sagacious foresight, he wisely avoided the possibility of establishing another European power in the place of England, especially one which 128 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND might prove a worse neighbour and would certainly lay claim to the great west But Haldimand knew naught of this and could only act upon information received, such as the following dated November 29th, 1779, from Halifax:—"About six weeks ago a Spanish Pacquet under the care of an officer was brought into New York by a Privateer belonging to that place and by a very clever behavior on the part of the Master of that Vessel, the Mail and other papers were secured and I am informed that upon examination of its contents an authentic copy of a Treaty was found which had lately been signed at Paris between the courts of France and Spain, and Franklin, the American Agent on the part of Congress. And by one of the articles of this Treaty, the Congress binds themselves to deliver up by June 20th, 1780, the two Floridas into the hands of Spain and the Provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia to the French King." Tidings of this nature merely served to rouse the general to strenuous exertions for the defence of the province. One of his first labours was the establishment of a post at the entrance of Lake Ontario into the St Lawrence, where the traders could store the goods brought from Montreal in canoes or batteaux, ready for transhipment to Niagara. The secure harbour necessary was found at Carleton Island, where fortifications and a barracks were begun under the direction of Twiss of 124 ERECTING FORTIFICATIONS the engineers, while Schank of the navy was to superintend the building of gun boats for Lake Ontario. "We are at the same time," Haldimand wrote the minister, "busily employed upon the works at the Isle aux Noix and St John's, on the communication with Lake Champlain, and the situation of Sorel, on the River of that name at its conflux with the St Lawrence, where ships of Burden approach without difficulty, being very favourable to our Magazines, we are engaged in erecting the necessary Storehouses and the Barracks to lodge a Body of Troops to cover them, and to remain in readiness for all emergencies. While these works have been carrying on, two of the armed vessels have been constantly kept cruizing upon the Lake up to Crown Point, and I have employed discovering parties wherever anything was to be apprehended. Many families and the Wives and Children of some of the Loyalists already with the Army have come into this Province lately, having been driven from their places of residence, after having all their Property seized, by a Law of the Rebels for that express purpose. The Distress of those poor people is so great that I take it for granted the expense which must be incurred by relieving them will be judged unavoidable and be approved o£" Lord Germaine exhibited his geographical ignorance by remarking that with 6,200 troops Haldimand ought not to be badly off, but should be able 125 m m m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND to demonstrate that neither France nor Spain could make England abandon her loyal subjects. In 1780, he no longer saw the necessity for even so large a force in Canada, since Washington had but 8,000 under his immediate command, and the British fleet was sweeping the seas. He did not consider that every man in the old colonies was turned soldier for the defence of his property, whatever might be the number with the commander-in-chief, while the Canadians served with reluctance even as seamen on the lakes. The best of the forces in Canada were three British regiments, which lacking their grenadier and light infantry corps amounted only to 1,200 men. The Germans proved not to be adapted to the work required of them. In a country where soldiers are expected to turn their hands to anything, these Europeans objected to duty not strictly military in character, and being indifferent to the issue of the struggle they were too much inclined to desert to their countrymen in Pennsylvania. The Indian contingent was a very uncertain quantity, but at most the Six Nations could contribute only 600 fighting men, and the Seven Nations of Canada, as they were called, still fewer. The most efficient troops were sent to guard the upper posts, while the Germans remaining in Quebec were mostly invalids left behind from Burgoyne's expedition. In case of invasion the general wrote that he could not put more than 2,500 men in the field nor keep them there for more than two months, 126 "T7^- 1 THE ALLEGIANCE OF THE CANADIANS and he feared that many would desert to the enemy. In a winter campaign the rebels had the advantage because used to such warfare, but Haldimand sent out his troops in detachments to practise walking on snow-shoes, to learn how to make huts in the woods and to live in them for eight or ten days at a time. He resolved also to attach some Canadians to each British regiment and to gain their confidence by favouring their noblesse and keeping up the rank-distinctions on which they set such store, though at times he felt it was hardly safe to trust them with arms. Should French soldiers make their appearance with rebel troops, the Canadians would give them provisions and serve as guides, if they did not actually join them in an attempt to conquer the country. The inhabitants had been largely neutral during the invasion under Montgomery and Arnold. If they did not come willingly forward to fight for Great Britain, neither did they care to fight against her, as the weight of clerical and seigniorial influence was upon her side. The more intelligent classes were well aware that neither their church nor their estates had aught to gain from absorption into a republic, but reunion with the mother country was a different matter. A report was even circulated that the pope had issued a bull absolving from their oath of allegiance to England all who would return to that of France, while the Indians were reminded of their hypothetical promise to return to 127 Mr SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND fight for the French against the EngHsh whenever the former should reappear. Bishops in France were better informed upon the political situation than their Canadian brethren whom they censured soundly for their leanings towards the rebel cause. Haldimand says on the subject: — "However sensible I am of the good conduct of the clergy in general during the invasion of the Province in the year 1775, I am well aware that since France was known to take part in the contest, and since the address of Count D'Estaing and a letter of M. de la Fayette to the Canadians and Indians have been circulated in the Province, many of the Priests have changed their opinions, and in case of another Invasion would, I am afraid, adopt another system of conduct." An example was made of one Sulpician so open and violent in his advocacy of a return to the old regime that the head of his seminary agreed to his banishment, with the further injunction from the general that he should "restrain his ordinary vivacity and take care of what he says and does before leaving." Pere Valinere's fate served as a warning to his brethren against the open promulgation of treason, but only one curd was sufficiently loyal to send to the authorities the seditious proclamation from his church door. The governor had good reason for complaint that he was generally the last person informed as to what was passing either in his own province or Bill 128 1 DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION in the rebel colonies. It was of the utmost importance that he should have some inkling of the designs of congress, and he had been ordered to keep up a close communication with the royal commander at New York, but his messengers going by Lake Champlain were often intercepted, and the trail by the Kennebec or the Penobscot, though shorter, was still more unsafe. The lieutenant- governor of Nova Scotia wrote that the best way to forward despatches to him was via Fort Howe, at the mouth of the St John river, opposite Annapolis, thence to Halifax, only a month's journey. The sea route to either colleague was no more satisfactory, as the gulf was full of rebel privateers, bent on destroying the fisheries, and watching for merchant or mail vessels. They made a practice of flocking into the St Lawrence in the early spring to try to intercept news coining from England, and were often successful, as Haldimand's earnest entreaty for more help from the fleet had not been granted. "What can we do for you," the admiralty asked him," when every day we are looking for French ships to make a landing upon the coast of England, and straining every nerve merely to hold our own on the high seas against the combined navies of France and Spain?" Not a ship could the governor get to winter in the river, though some were willing to wait as late as October 25th to act as convoy to the merchant vessels going home. If the French fleet should 129 I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND I winter at Boston, it would be on hand in good season to sail up the St Lawrence to Quebec before the English could cross the Atlantic. According to his habit of making the most of the means at his disposal, the general issued letters of marque to local craft, permitting them to prey upon the rebel shipping, and he employed swift sailing sloops of war to keep watch in the gulf. His plan was to station "a ship of force" at Bic, and to delay the departure of the fall fleet until the middle of November, so that with the help of a frigate in the gulf and the smaller armed craft that could be spared, the lower parts of the province might be protected until nearly the close of navigation. Secret agents of congress penetrated every part of the country. A man called Moses Hazen was reported to have made four trips from Albany to St. Francis in one summer, and he had scouts at work forming a well-defined trail between the two places in order to keep himself posted upon the strength of St. Johns and Montreal, as well as to open a way for the advance of rebel troops. Hazen persuaded twenty-six Canadian prisoners in Albany to take up arms for congress, and for a long time Haldimand's scouts could find neither his spies nor his road, though they blazed tracks hither and thither through the forest, to the confusion of the next seekers. Resident Jesuit missionaries were suspected of securing the sympathies of the Caughnawagas for congress, and some mischief-maker got in among 130 CORRESPONDENCE WITH CLINTON the Indians of St Regis and the Lake of the Two Mountains, whose work had to be undone by stationing loyal subjects there. The savages were not pleased that on their scouting expeditions they were charged to take no scalps, only prisoners; and there were others in the province who soon found that the new governor was a man to be obeyed. Before he had been a year at his post he wrote to a London friend that he was surrounded with enemies and knew not whom to trust His sense of justice was ever stronger than his love of approbation, but he was not sufficiently callous to public opinion to enjoy living in an atmosphere of suspicion. With Sir Henry Clinton, commander at New York, he could have worked in harmony had the difficulties of communication been less. Haldimand sent him a "trial letter" by each new route to see if it would reach him safely, and all epistles had to be duplicated, even triplicated, if there was to be any likelihood of their delivery. For six months of one year the Canadian governor did not hear from Clinton at all, though he sent him nineteen letters; and during that time he had to rely upon scraps of information from the rebel newspapers that occasionally found their way to Quebec. He improved the mail service with England by the establishment of a line of fast packets, sailing from either side of the Atlantic once a month as regularly as could be arranged. While the fortifications at the mouth of the 181 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Richelieu were in progress, the governor spent much of his time at Sorel, and thence he wrote to Lord George Germaine, that "gentleman at his desk" who planned a number of absurd campaigns in America. He was the minister to whom Haldimand was bound to make his report, though Germaine's replies, when at last they came, must frequently have been irritating to such an able man as the general. The following is an excerpt from one of his reports, written from the camp at Sorel on October 15th, 1778:— "I have in another letter given a general Account of the Business in which I have been engaged since my arrival, but I have reserved, as I thought it would be most agreeable to Your Lordship, the more particular information necessary to lay before you for a separate letter. "All the accounts which I have received from the Rebel Colonies agree that the Reduction of Canada is looked upon there as so essentially requisite to them before they can consider themselves secure, that it has been declared to the People from the Congress, as I make no doubt Your Lordship has seen, that they are not to expect Peace till they shall have accomplished this indispensable work. Haun [Hazen?] and a famous Canadian Rebel named Traversier, who I informed Your Lordship in my letter of the 28th of June, I had received intelligence were come towards this Province, have been in St. Francois, and I am sorry to say returned 132 A DESPATCH TO GERMAINE in spite of the assiduity and vigilance of several persons who were employed there to look out for them. These men have left word with their Friends, who are but too numerous there and who take care to spread the mischief imparted to them, that they will certainly return in a short time in Force. Some People in this Province who were taken by Privateers in their passage with the Fleet last Spring and just lately back by Land, report that it was the language of the Country, wherever they passed, that an Army would soon make its appearance in Canada. "The Capital Approach to this Province being by Lake Champlain, it is to be wished that we could accomplish the Erecting of such Solid and respectable works as are requisite for its Defence, but all we can hope to effect this year is, at the Isle aux Noix, to contract the old French works, so as to adapt them better to the small number of men which I can spare for them. At St John's, to complete a temporary outwork to possess a rising ground on the West Side and near the Fort, so called, being nothing more than a line of Pickets, with a Banquette within and an inconsiderable Ditch without, covering the Barracks and Store Houses, erected between the two old Earth Redoubts upon the River, which are miserable works and in a very bad condition, the whole, with the Ships which they are meant to cover in the winter, when they must be laid up, can be expected in 188 If II SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND their present state only to frustrate the sly and desultory attempts, but will be by no means capable of resisting any Formidable and supported Attack of an enemy. Plans of these works shall also be sent to Your Lordship. Chamblie is only a Fortified Barrack, affords even no shelter against cannon, and is entirely surrounded by a high ground at a small Musket Shot "I judge it unsafe in our present defensive Plan to have any stores so high up as Any of the Places above mentioned, or at Montreal, and have withdrawn them therefore, except such as were required there, to this Post, where I shall be able this year only to erect some Temporary Redoubts, and to lodge but a part of the Body of Troops I mean to station there, where the convenience of communicating so easily with all parts of the Province by water carriage, gives it singular advantage, either for advancing or retreating, and where it is absolutely necessary to have as considerable a corps as possible, as it covers both the Avenue of Lake Champlain and that of St. Francois, which has been very much used by the Rebels, their Settlement approaching much nearer to those of the Canadians on that part, than on any other of the Colony, and this communication is the more dangerous to us as there is a Tribe of the Domiciled Indians upon that River that are lately become very ungovernable, and 'tis feared attached to the Rebels. It is my intention therefore, if time and circum- 134 LOYAL CANADIANS stances favour me, to make Sorel a place of strength with Permanent Works, as the importance of it deserves. The Seigneuriere of this Place is vested in Merchants residing in England, and the Inhabitants of it, people remarkable for their courage and resolution, have distinguished themselves very much by their attachment to Government even at the time the Rebels were Masters of that Country, in which account I think it would serve the King's interest to bestow some Public mark of favour upon them, such as remitting them the Quit rents which they pay for their lands to the Seigneur and the Seigneuriere being to be sold, and the Purchase would not exceed £8,000, having been offered for that sum, I submit to Your Lordship whether it would not be best to give orders to treat immediately with the Proprietors, Messrs. Greenwood and Wigginson, Merchants in London, both for enabling me to effect the purpose above mentioned, and for securing to Government at a reasonable rate the lands whereon the works will be situated, and a great quantity of wood which the Seigneurie furnishes, fit for building and other uses thereof, upon a spot which nature makes so important, as that it becomes highly indispensable to avail ourselves of the best manner possible of such a situation, and therefore in a very short time, if Your Lordship does not by the means I here propose prevent it, the Prices for what Government shall have occasion to occupy of the land and to take of the wood will 185 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND be infinitely enhanced, and many other obstacles will be opposed to the completion of the Design. "I employ all methods to become acquainted with the intricate and secret Paths, by which I find the Rebel Emissaries still gain Access into the Parishes on the St. Francois, and others on the South Shore where they have obtained but too much interest with both the Canadians and Indians. I have now some Canadian Officers of Trust exploring that River, and I mean to establish a Post as high up as will be prudent, as soon as I shall find the best place upon it for interrupting their dangerous intercourse, and I am in hopes of breaking it off, provided we have time given us, but we have too many works on hand to be able to proceed so rapidly as the case seems to require, particularly as by the necessary disposition of the Troops to keep the Parishes in order, the Germans become entirely useless in these respects. "I have a Detachment of Loyalists and a Company of the 34th Regt. upon the Chaudiere at the Upper part of the settlements on which we have a picketed Fort and are building a Block House. "The Company of the 8th Regt. which was at Oswegatchie, where I have for the present placed a Detachment of Thirty men from the Troops here, for keeping up the communication and for scouting. That Compy., as well as a Detachment of the same Regiment, which had been sent from Niagara to protect the Merchandise forwarded from' here to 136 A PREDATORY EXPEDITION the Island, where I have reported to Your Lordship a Fort is now building, has been sent to join their Regiment, part at Niagara and part, in consequence of the irruption of the Rebels into the Illinois, I thought proper to order to Detroit. The Difficulty of subsisting Troops in that part of the world where nothing is to be procured, but what is sent there with so great labour and expense, puts it out of my power to send any greater reinforcement this year to the Upper Posts, which the future interest of Great Britain, not less than the present concerns of the Province would require to be in a much more respectable state and condition. "I informed Your Lordship in my letter of the 28th July that I had sent a Party to destroy the Harvest in the Rebel Settlement nearest to our Frontiers.' Owing to a disagreement between the Indians and the Loyalists Compy. composing the Party before they came near the spot where they were to act, they returned without fully answering the purposes intended, having only destroyed some Barns and a couple of mills upon the lower part of the Onion River, which, however, has obliged the People to abandon those parts and the Detachment suffered no loss. I mean still to prosecute this design, as there are some settlements upon the Borders of Lake Champlain, Otter Creek and about Tyconderoga and Crown Point that may furnish many conveniences and necessaries which would facilitate the approach of an enemy. I propose to 187 m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND send a respectable party, which will be covered by some of the ships and Gun Boats, and that it shall be as late as possible in going out as the Damage it may then do to the enemy will be irreparable this season. The showing ourselves still on that side may probably have the effect of keeping up the difficulty which the Rebel Government is not without finding in enforcing obedience (an effect which is but too sensibly felt by us here, even from the insinuations of a few Agents of Rebellion) and the appearance of Invasion from where perhaps they do not expect it, may break or retard the measures of those People for carrying it to where they intend it. "I have informed Your Lordship in another letter of several Families from the neighbouring Provinces having come into this for Protection and Relief. To diminish the expense of lodging them about the country among the Inhabitants and to avoid the inconvenience which might possibly result from too general a communication between any of these People, that I have found come here under false pretences, and the Canadians, I have ordered Houses to be built for their Women and Children and some old and sick on a spot in the Parish of Machiche where they will be separated and by themselves. "Considering the inconvenience and even Accidents to which the Troops dispersed all about the Country among the Inhabitants in their Winter Quarters are liable to, I have begun to establish 138 TEMPORARY BARRACKS Temporary Barracks in some of the Parishes by fitting up vacant houses which have been found therein, where they can be lodged in Bodies and contiguous. And I shall as far as possible adopt for all the Parishes in which it is necessary to have Troops the same plan, and where Houses as above are not to be found, build them for the purpose, which I judge equally requisite for the Preservation of Discipline among the Troops, for making them respected by the Inhabitants, for better enforcing the obedience of these two ordinances and for compliance with orders which the Conjuncture of the Times may make necessary to issue to them and for the Expeditious assembling of the others upon sudden Emergencies. Lest, however, the Expense Attending these Regulations should alarm you, I think it right to acquaint Your Lordship that by cutting the Logs of which these Buildings are Constructed from the lands upon which the Crown has rights and by their being Executed in part by the People, it will be confined to a very moderate sum, considering the number of Houses required and their utility when completed. "I have done nothing yet about Canadian Corps, waiting for the time when the men who are employed in the Trade to the Country above and the Fisheries below, and who are of the most Robust and active of the Young men, shall return, which is late in the Fall, when I intend to Embody Three Compys. beginning with these few and extending 139 ft SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the levy if I shall see it likely to succeed, and that His Majesty's service would be benefited by it. We have received some assistance from the Country by Corvies without which the Transport of Provisions between Montreal and Carleton for the Upper Posts would be impracticable, but in the present disposition of the People, I have judged it highly requisite to observe the utmost Caution, not to make Demands that from exciting murmurs might lead them to a Declaration of sentiments which the French Alliance with the Rebels has undoubtedly raised in numbers of them, who in regard of the Rebellion were unquestionably attached to Government and received in the others, the symptoms of which change in the Canadians is everywhere manifest and the more dangerous as multitudes are but too sensible of our inability with the Troops we have in an entire open country to control them, if any fortuitous circumstances should unite their resolutions as their inclinations are but too much already. Wherefore I cannot conclude this subject without hazarding my opinion to Your Lordship, that this Province cannot be preserved should the Rebels exert their efforts against it, which it is evidently not less their inclinations to attempt than it is their interest to prosecute at all rates the success without a much superior Body of Troops than is at this time here. Such a Body of Troops as besides sufficient Garrisons for all our Posts would afford Eight Thousand Men to take the Field, 140 THE BRUNSWICK TROOPS which, commanding the resources of the Country, would push on the different works at Posts necessary to Possess, to a speedy Completion when we might expect to draw from the Country itself such assistance from the consequent obedience of the Inhabitants as would repay these Extraordinary Exertions to procure it "The remaining Troops of the Duke of Brunswick have been formed by orders sent from their Prince into Three Battalions of Four Companies each, instead of Fives, which the Brunswick Battalions consisted of by the Treaty, and the Battalion of Prince Frederick, which came back here entire, is now put on the same footing as the other two formed from the Detachments of all the Corps left behind and that have come back, the number of men now in each Company being much greater than they were before, while that of the Officers is less, and I must say so insufficient as scarcely to have been serviceable independent of these Detachments having been the refuse of the Corps they belonged to, and therefore it is a matter which will require Your Lordship's interference about with the Duke of Brunswick. The clothing of these Troops, which I learn has been since some time past in England, has been neglected to be sent over, and the Troops are likely to suffer very much for want of it during .the Approaching Winter. There is likewise a Detachment of the Regiment of the Prince of Hanau left in Canada, of near Two 141 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Hundred men, and only Three Officers, one of which I have been obliged to take to command the Company of Artillery which I have acquainted Your Lordship I had formed out of them and the Artillerymen remaining so that the Detachment has only a Captain and a Subaltern to serve with it and therefore I apprehend something ought to be done to bring this Corps into a more sensible state. "It will be absolutely requisite to occupy and establish a Post at Oswego, or somewhere in that neighbourhood, otherwise we must expect to lose entirely the remaining faithful part of the Five Nations Indians. They have already repeatedly demanded that Government should take that step in favour of them, in order that their Families might have a secure place to retreat while their warriors were employed upon Expeditions against the Rebels, and I am of opinion that it is impossible, consistent with His Majesty's Interests, to reject their solicitations, although it must occasion a further heavy Expense of Provisions and other Articles which they will expect to be supplied with, and while the Transport of so far must cost very large sums. "I have in this letter Communicated to Your Lordship very much at length An Account of the Measures I am pursuing and those I think most immediately necessary to pursue for the Defence and Security of this Province entrusted to my care, in doing of which I have unavoidably fallen into 142 END OF THE DESPATCH prolixity, which I pray Your Lordship to excuse and impute to the earnest desire I am actuated by of making my Zeal for His Majesty's Service manifest and of meriting Your Lordship's approbation of my conduct" 148 CHAPTER IX THE UPPER POSTS THE frontier forts were one and all an endless source of anxiety to the governor at Quebec, beginning with the most northerly Michillimakinak, at the narrows between the two great inland seas Huron and Michigan, coining down to Detroit, in the straits leading to Lake Erie, and thence to Niagara and Carleton Island, the door-keepers of Lake Ontario. With an insufficient number of troops to defend the nearer portions of his province, it was impossible for the general to spare garrisons large enough to enable the outposts to withstand the ever expected rebel attacks. Their distance from one another, as well as from Quebec, and the slow and insecure method of communication made it desirable that each should be self-reliant, but they were dependent on one another, like links in a chain, and all at the mercy of the surrounding savages whose good-will could be secured only by a constant distribution of presents. Once more the Indian saw himself of political consequence between two white races at war, both seeking his alliance, and he made the most of the occasion, taking gifts from either side when it could be safely done. Why weary himself with 145 m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND hunting to feed and clothe himself when there was a well-stored fort within reach? If the British would have him go upon the war-path, they must feed his family while he was gone. Often on his return from one of these "diversions" his squaw would tear the clothes off his back that he might present himself at the fortress in a condition calling for rehabiliment. Most of all did he crave "the pernicious article of rum," and there were always plenty of vagabond traders about to induce him to buy it from themselves, contrary to law, or to plague the chiefs and interpreters into getting it for him. An inventory of the merchandise for Indian presents in one of the king's stores includes such articles as "shirts, plain linnen and ruffi'd; caUi- manco bed gowns, 36 scarlet coats, laced; finger rings, Jew's harps, watch chains, shoe buckles, scalping knives"; while "arm-bands, 3 inch broad, French manufacture; 400 ear-wheels, 1,000 pair large ear-bobs, Black wampum," etc., are wanted. In a letter to De Peyster, the Detroit commander, July 6th, 1780, Haldimand says:—"Long habits of indulgence have created wants with the Indians which otherwise they would never have experienced, such as fine saddles and many luxuries carefully exhibited to their view by the all-grasping Trader. I think it would be cruel to deny these poor people who are employed by us such mark of our attention and regards as are necessary to their 146 HIS INDIAN POLICY comfort Every shilling beyond this is superfluous to them and a loss to Government, nor is it in a Political view necessary, for however they may threaten to forsake us, we must know it is impossible they can exist without our aid, the Rebels not having necessaries sufficient for their own wants, and consequently to supply theirs." The general had a long acquaintance with Indians, had fought with and against them in the Seven Years' War, had been the official protector of northern races at Three Rivers, of southern at Pensacola and while in command at New York had been in receipt of reports from Indian agents all over the country. With none of the modern sentimentality concerning the noble red man, he was yet determined to claim respect for his rights as a fellow creature. Some of the ill-will he brought upon himself was due to his rigid enforcement of the laws relating to the sale of Indian lands, the English government having decreed that no purchase of property from an aborigine should be valid unless made in the presence of the governor of the district and the Indian superintendent General Haldimand did not agree with General Gage that knocking them on the head was the only way to deal with Indians; he knew they could be punished through their love of gain. Therefore he directed his agents to use some discrimination in their bestowal of presents and reward those alone who were "hearty" in the kings cause. Of these 147 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the most conspicuous were the Five Nations, who had now become six by the incorporation of the Tuscaroras, a southern sept of the same Iroquois clan. The Oneida tribe of the confederacy constantly wavered in their allegiance, although they sent their women and children to be fed at Niagara with the intent it was said of lessening the supplies at the fort. The Hurons, too, were suspected of craft in watching the fluctuations of the war and taking care to keep always upon the winning side, while none of the western nations were to be depended upon except the Sioux, who offered to attack the faithless Ottawas, Chippewas and Potta- wattamies. The last were described as credulous, fickle and timid, swearing to remain neutral when the rebel agents bade them stay at home, taking up the hatchet in return for British presents, but easily led off by treacherous traders into the peaceful employment of gathering ginseng. That aromatic root which the old Jesuits used to ship to China, where it brought five dollars a pound, proved a sore temptation also to the Mississaugas on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. They were faithful and well-disposed to their neighbours on Carleton Island, but always clamouring for goods and rum, which they often found could be more quickly gained in the ginseng trade than by going to war. The Mohawk tribe of the Six Nations could not at first be trusted to fight against their erstwhile 148 SCOUTING PARTIES friends, the English colonists, and the province had no security against the approach of an enemy through their country until the autumn of 1778, when Major Carleton, brother of the ex-governor, made a clean sweep of the settlements on either side of Lake Champlain. Two years later he captured Fort Anne and Fort George. All the Loyalists had been expelled from«the district and their lands given to rabid revolutionists upon whose support an army for invading Canada could rely, but Carleton's raiders destroyed provisions enough to have supplied 12,000 men for four months. They penetrated past the abandoned Fort Ticonderoga as far as Otter Creek and brought back over thirty captives to swell the numbers destined to fill Canadian prisons to overflowing. Where did they all come from ? One need only read the records of these "scouts" as the parties were called, to become amply informed. In February, 1780, it is a matter for congratulation that the Delawares have been to Wyoming, killed seven persons and made six prisoners; another scout has returned from near Ligonier with twenty-six prisoners and scalps; another has been to Woodcock Valley, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, where they burned seven houses, the same number of barns, killed cattle and horses, destroyed a block-house and put to death ten rebels whom they would have preferred to bring in as prisoners, but the Indians were not to be restrained. In no sense were the 149 7A I li SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND savages reliable if sent upon a scouting expedition alone. There was always the danger of their being bought over by the rebels, and the fidelity even of the Six Nations rested largely upon the number of British troops accompanying them. The general directed his abhorrence of acts of cruelty to be impressed upon every Indian in the service, but they were so barbarously treated by the rebels when taken captive that it was most difficult to restrain them from retaliation. Chiefly for the protection of the convoys of provisions on their way to Carleton Island, there to be stored for shipment via Niagara to the upper lakes, a small fort was maintained at Oswegatchie (Og- densburg) on the St. Lawrence, but the officer in charge complained that he had only men enough to line one face of the works. His garrison was worn out with excessive scouting duty, being constantly on the move to discover the projects of the enemy against Carleton Island or their design to take possession of the abandoned works at Oswego. What, for instance, was the meaning of the thousand batteaux being built at Schenectady? They might be meant for New York, but Canada was the more likely destination. An Oswegatchie party brought home twenty-eight prisoners who had been mowing near Fort Stanwix, and killed nobody but two sentries; another sent to "amuse the people on the Mohawk" burned twenty houses and a like number of barns; the same was done at Conajoharie 150 THE WYOMING EXPEDITION and Dayton, the only regret being that EUice's mill was still standing and a scout was planned to destroy it. By thus "teasing" the people of the German Flats, the commander at Oswegatchie hoped to drive them out, in which case Fort Stan- wix must follow. It did follow in course of time, the garrison setting it on fire and beating a quiet retreat in 1781. Schenectady was in truth becoming the rebel frontier. With the idea of preventing an expedition against Niagara, Major John Butler, in command of 500 of his famous Rangers, together with 600 Six Nations Indians, attacked the district of Wyoming with the desired result of its complete demolition—one thousand dwelling-houses, eight forts, mills, etc. But the leader is careful to state: "I can with truth inform you that in the destruction of this settlement not a single person has been hurt of the inhabitants, but such as were armed; to those indeed the Indians gave no quarter." It was the savages who suffered in return, for General John Sullivan with 6,000 troops of congress, in spite of some slight resistance made by Butler's Rangers at Newton, marched into the Iroquois country and laid waste eighteen villages with the surrounding corn-fields. Haldimand was utterly perplexed for want of proper information regarding the destination of the expedition, and it was to him a source of great vexation that he had left his allies to their fete without lifting a finger 151 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND to help them. Some of the warriors refused to forsake their lands, lest the enemy should say they were afraid, and gleaned what they could from their desolated plantations; but the summer was over and the majority of the homeless became a burden upon the British posts. Including refugee Loyalists, there were three thousand "useless people" to be fed and sheltered at Niagara during the winter of 1779-80, and the general, though protesting against a needless increase in the number of dependents at all the upper posts, sent up the necessary provisions, even at the risk of a famine in Quebec. With so many hungry mouths expecting food from him, it is no wonder that he watched anxiously for the arrival of the "victuallers" and breathed more freely when he heard of their having escaped the dangers of shipwreck or capture and being actually in the river. He asked that they might set sail earlier from England, in the end of March or beginning of April, so as to be in the St. Lawrence by the opening of navigation; while a second fleet, he thought, might begin the voyage about the middle of July. In the end of June, 1779, the general ordered a number of Sacs and Foxes, then in Montreal, with whom the rebels had been "tampering" in their far western homes, to be brought down to Quebec and impressed with a sight of the British fleet. A deputation from the Six Nations was detained six weeks at the capital for the same purpose and made to 152 - -■ :^_ ^^^v, JOSEPH BRANT observe that there were no French ships among the arrivals from Cork or London. In dismissing them, the general said he had sent reinforcements to Detroit, Niagara and Carleton Island to march to the relief of his Indian allies, since "the Great King, your father, is not sparing of his troops, nor lets you fight your battles by yourselves." Niagara was the post which stood in most danger of capture; the enemy had already laid waste the country within eighty miles, and should it fall, Detroit and Michillimakinak would be cut off from the base of supplies and must surrender also. The avenue to Niagara was therefore closely watched and it lay along the Mohawk valley where stores were known to be collecting for the advance of a rebel army. To that region therefore scouts were frequently sent and often they were commanded by Joseph Brant, the most civilized savage of his time, though a past master in the art of conflagration. His operations on the Mohawk included the burning of a village of the renegade Oneidas, forts at Minnisink, as well as twenty houses at Schoharie, one hundred at Kleysburg, also a church, two forts, horses, cattle, etc., and he always returned with a goodly supply of prisoners and scalps. Haldimand wrote to Germaine that the success attending the border warfare was chiefly due to Joseph Brant, " whose attachment to Government, resolution and Personal exertion make him a character of very distinguished kind, and I humbly consider him entitled 153 1 I 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND to some particular mark of the King's favour." He received the "particular mark," being made a colonel of Indians, and continued his depredations, though it is upon record that his parties harmed no woman or child. In expressing his personal approbation of Joseph and his brethren, His Excellency wished them to be assured that their course of action, "if steadily pursued, cannot fail to reinstate them in their domestic enjoyments and to add to their renown in Indian and in English history." But care had to be exercised in honouring Brant, for there was his rival, Butler, equally deserving as a partisan leader, and there was Butler's right hand man, Schender- atchta, king of the Senecas, brave and prudent, a hater of the French, and firmer in his allegiance to Great Britain since France had joined congress. Among the loyal Indian chiefs Colonel Brant was considered "not so great a warrior as some, and therefore not so high in his tribe as others." These would be jealous if too much favour were shown him by the British, since they already knew that he was in their pay. A rather troublesome ward of the nation was "Miss Molly," sister of Joseph Brant, and by the Indians regarded as the widow of Sir William Johnson. She had more influence with them than any of the chiefs, and though her large family made her somewhat unreasonable in her own demands, she checked the insatiable exactions of her 154 GUY JOHNSON neighbours. Despite objections well-nigh insurmountable to being separated from her children, she at length consented to leave two of them at school in Montreal for a winter while she went to Niagara to give Valuable aid in keeping her tribesmen loyal; but her violent temper made her presence not an unalloyed blessing. Eventually, she was settled in a house of her own at Carleton Island, next to one built for her brother Joseph, and was granted a pension of £100 a year. The death of Sir William Johnson in 1774 had been a national loss. His nephew, Guy Johnson, who was also his son-in-law, was in no way competent to fill his place, having neither the heart nor the brain of his uncle. The younger man had far less influence with the Six Nations than "Mrs. Mary Brant," and he left his duties as Indian agent to be performed by his deputy, Major Butler, for a couple of years, though anxious to secure to himself the credit for anything of importance which was done during that time. Refusing to look upon his position as civil only, he wrote to Lord George Ger- maine recommending the enlistment of certain corps and other impracticable measures entirely out of his province. As it was marked "On His Majesty's Service," Haldimand opened this letter in Quebec and forwarded it open to England, which he need not have done since he knew it would bring down upon himself a reprimand from the minister. Lord Germaine's censure even ex 155 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND ceeded his expectations, and the general, from this solitary instance, has been stigmatized by posterity as a person who opened private letters. Colonel Johnson acknowledged that he had been infringing upon the rights of the commander-in- chief, and Germaine agreed with Haldimand that he was not a proper person to be at the head of Indian affairs. He was superseded by his cousin, Sir John Johnson, Sir William's son. This gentleman had not the genial open-heartedness of his father, but being a most bitter Tory became of good service to the British by raising and commanding "The King's Royal Regiment of New York." He spread desolation about that part of the country wherein had lain his own possessions before they were confiscated by the rebels, burned the traitorous village of Caughnawaga, and made beacons of many farmhouses, besides bringing in a number of prominent rebels as prisoners. Like Joseph Brant, he had personal wrongs to revenge, and unlike his cousin, Guy, Sir John stood at his post though the confused state of his private affairs called for his attention and he had been granted leave of absence. The general reports:—"It would be endless and difficult to enumerate to Your Lordship the Parties that are continually Employed upon the back Settlements. From the Illinois Country to the Frontiers of New York there is a continued succession. I must da Colonel Johnson and the officers who have the direction of this Service the Justice 156 **&*" RAIDS AND FORAYS to acquaint Your Lordship that they have paid great attention to it." Major Ross, of the 34th Regiment, was another champion of this sort of warfare, and the account of his forced march towards the nest of rebels at Warrensborough, twelve miles from Schenectady, through heavy rain in the autumn of 1781, his burning of over seven miles of settlement, including one hundred farms, three mills, a large public granary, and his destruction of cattle and stock of all kinds, is hardly rendered agreeable reading in our day by the statement that he harmed no woman or child. Ross was pursued by 1,200 Continentals and militia, but defeated them, though his men, almost exhausted with fatigue and hunger, had to live upon captured horses before they reached Carleton Island. Early in the spring of 1782, before the ice had left the lake and rivers, Major Ross led a party up Lake Ontario, presumably for Niagara but in reality to take post at Oswego. The destination was kept secret for fear the rebels should forestall them. The expedition was successful, and the restoration of the fort, so long delayed by the difficulty of transporting provisions to it, gave great satisfaction to the Indians, who declared that the good old times of Sir William Johnson had come again. Beset as they were by foes on every hand, the general was most anxious that his subordinates should keep on good terms with one another, but 157 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND he had often to play the peacemaker, as between De Peyster at Detroit and Sinclair at Michilli- makinak for example. To the former he wrote August 10th, 1780:—"I am persuaded you all think too liberally to suffer any little differences of opinion (if such there is) to lead you from that sense of duty which distinguishes the perfect officer from the lukewarm crowd. You would therefore do well to lay open to Lieut. Gov. Sinclair whatever reports of the kind may have reached you, whether by Letter or otherwise, with the names of those who have circulated them, and I shall desire him to do the same for your information, by which means these Disturbers of Tranquillity and of the Public Service may be brought to light and discouraged." To another he says:—"Nothing can more conduce to the Reputation of Officers than to relinquish little personal considerations when necessary to promote the public service." He could give a royal snub to a presumptuous subordinate. Of one such he writes:—"As to his criticisms on the regulations of Indian affairs at the posts, they were not formed to gratify the vanity of commanders but for the benefit of the service." Jehu Hay, lieutenant-governor of Detroit in 1784, inadvertently let slip the remark, in one of his letters to headquarters, "Much less can I boast of having realized 25 or 30 .thousand pounds at the Expense of my Country." He was pounced upon immediately—did he mean to insinuate that anyone else had done so? 158 QUESTIONS OF PRECEDENCE Hay had to explain that he was referring to himself alone. Not only were there disagreements between officers at different posts, but frequently those at the same station could not dwell in Unity. The Indian superintendent was naturally inclined to think himself of more importance than the officer in command of the garrison, since he had by far the larger number of warriors at his disposal, and he would try to claim superior army rank. The burning question of precedence affected every branch of the service. At the change of rulers, Captain Schank, of the navy, wrote to Carleton that he was unwilling to serve on the lakes unless a particular recommendation and a frill explanation of his rank were left for the new governor, as he was afraid that his banishment to fresh water might hinder his advancement on the sea. Captain Fraser, of the Royal Highland Emigrants, had apparently a goodly store of the national sensitiveness to slights, and complained of juniors being put over his head while he was left to be governed by boys, sutlers and mechanics. He pushed his grievances somewhat too far, and though he affirmed that in his twenty-six years of service he had never needed a reproof from a superior, he found, as is shown by a letter of July 18th, 1780, that General Haldimand could break the rule:—"My willing Approbation upon all occasions of your Zeal and attention to the King's' 159 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND 111 Service ought to have spared me the necessity of taking notice of a Passage in your letter of the 2nd Instant, where, Complaining of the bad Behaviour of the Mississaugas, you say that were you to use much Reproach to them you might afterwards be accused of adding4 them to our Enemies. While I observe to you that this is a very improper Allusion to my Letter of the 12th Feb. (where it is mentioned as a Consequence likely to follow the usage of harsh measures with Indians, in our present weak State, and applicable to Myself alone) I wish 'to acquaint you that it is only expected of officers to whom I may have occasion to write letters upon the subject of the King's Service, readily and punctually to execute their Contracts, without reflecting or remarking upon them except when the Service may receive benefit therefrom, in which Case I shall always be happy to receive Information, and shall expect it as a duty from all officers to suggest to me whatever may appear to them necessary." He was a rigid disciplinarian, this governor-general, but not unkind to youthful offenders whose faults arose from mere ignorance of army rules, as may be gathered from the allowances which he made in the case of Lieutenant Glennie of the Royal Engineers. There was always a lack of good surveyors at the upper posts, and Haldimand, being assured of this lad's ability and industry, put in a strong plea for him when he was brought before a court martial 160 AT MICHILLIMAKINAK for insubordination, advising that he be sent to some post where his talents and application would atone for his contempt of superior officers less learned than himself. There were no disagreements at Carleton Island during the winter of 1780-81, reported Captain Fraser, though the garrison had been " of all nations, colours and professions," and one may guess at the restraint put upon tempers when good order was kept among Highlanders, Germans, French, English and Indians penned up in a fort The Canadians were considered the best workers, "though many of them are lost to a sense of their duty and much inclined to favour the plans of the Enemy." Fifteen hundred of these doubtful subjects were settled about Detroit, and "the Indians," said Major de Peyster, "are perfect Free Masons when entrusted with a secret by the Canadians, most of them being much connected by marriage." Off by itself in the northern wilderness, Michilli- makinak was the most difficult post to control, as well as the most expensive to maintain, and the bills sent in by its commander would make the governor-general feel like a modern pater-familias with an extravagant household. He sanctioned Sinclair's plan for moving his post from the mainland to an adjacent island, but would not agree to his calling it anything but Michillimakinak, though the fort might be shortened to " Makinak." " I have never known any advantage result from changing 161 II •li if SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the names of Places long inhabited by the same People." The English ministry never ceased to find fault with the enormous cost of supporting the frontier posts, and His Excellency passed on the complaints to the officers in charge of them, though he fully sympathized with their difficulties. Innumerable opportunities for dishonesty never fail to raise up innumerable people ready to take advantage of them. As MacLean in command at Niagara stated it, there was a rule "long adopted in this part of the world, that whatever can be got from government is well got, where no censure can ensue." Haldimand not only decreed that no official should be ever so slightly interested in trade, but he forbade the purchase of stores from local merchants and arranged that all necessary goods should be bought in England or Quebec. Often through carelessness in packing, the Indian presents were damaged before they were seen by the recipients, and the food spoiled so as to be unfit for use. If stores could have been taken direct to their various destinations, there would have been less risk as well as less expense, but after the tedious Atlantic voyage the St. Lawrence had to be ascended in small boats. Flat-bottomed, sharpened and tilted fore and aft, square-sailed, with five rowers and a helmsman, these batteaux had to be lightened at every portage and towed through the rapids, the crews helping one another. 162 11 DANGERS OF NAVIGATION From the storehouse at Carleton Island the goods were shipped in a larger vessel up Lake Ontario to the long Niagara portage, which had to be traversed before Lake Erie and Detroit could be reached. The Ontario, a newly-built, armed "snow," employed in this service, sailed from Niagara in November, 1780, with the commander of that post, Colonel Bolton, on leave of absence, one of his lieutenants, and a detachment of the 34th Regiment, as well as other travellers. The vessel was last seen near a place called Golden Hill, thirty miles below Niagara, but she foundered in an autumnal gale, and no trace of captain, crew or passengers was ever discovered. There were three gun-boats on the upper lakes, besides a row galley for carrying despatches. Stores for Michillimakinak were sometimes sent by way of the Ottawa and French rivers, an arduous journey of 251 leagues with 34 carrying places. Lieutenant-governor Sinclair tried to find a shorter route from his post to Niagara by way of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe, portaging thence to Toronto. Traffic did not end at Michillimakinak but continued via the Great Portage at the western end of Lake Superior. This interior trade was estimated at 40,000 pounds annually, and 500 men were employed in it The general made many suggestions for reducing expenses at the posts—the employment of prisoners in fanning, the encouragement of soldiers to supply themselves with fresh 163 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND fish and game instead of the salt pork they considered a luxury, the raising of cattle, the cultivation of vegetable gardens around the forts—even to the saving of powder by stopping the practice of vessels saluting one another. To Lord Germaine he wrote:—"Retaining the Indians in our Interests has been attended with a very heavy expense to Government, but their attachment has, alone, hitherto preserved the Upper Country, and the Devastation they have made upon the Susquehanna and Mohawk rivers has distressed the Enemy prodigiously, their settlements in these parts have been entirely broken up, their stock of every kind destroyed, and the inhabitants driven for subsistence into the interior parts of the country." Such valuable irregular troops must be fed or they would desert, and then a far larger number of regulars would be needed to hold the posts. But it was essential to make the Indians understand that they owed their living to the king, not to the trader. The commanding officer who did his duty in this respect was certain to be abused, and Haldimand himself incurred the enmity of the mighty army of traders by enforcing the regulations concerning passes for the upper country and limiting the number. Neither boat nor individual could leave or enter the region without a permit, not even Madame Langlade, seeking the small pleasure excursion of travelling in a canoe from Montreal to join her husband at Michillimakinak. The gen- 164 FEARS OF INVASION eral granted her request but advised her to defer her journey till more peaceable tunes. The officers in charge of the posts were directed to detain all suspicious parties for a season and to send notice of their appearance and probable intentions to the next station. Some merchants to whom passports were refused went so far as to make their complaints direct to Lord George Germaine, whose ear was ever open to such communications. Placed upon the defensive, Haldimand, on October 25th, 1780, replied to the minister:—" From every intelligence that could be procured, the Indian country in general, and military Posts in particular (which are the resorts of the traders) have been menaced by Invasion these 3 yrs. past and these reports have proved to have been well founded. The inconsiderable number of Troops, thinly Distributed among the Posts and (until lately) their weak state of Defence rendered imprudent to risk the large quantitys of goods which the Clamour of the merchants obliged me, contrary to my judgment, to acquiesce in their sending up—the Capture of which must have essentially militated against the King's Service." With the sole idea of doing his duty he had acted entirely upon the reports received from officers at the upper posts, on whom alone he could "confide with any degree of safety to the King's interests—" and he had ever enjoined them to be just So great a demand for passes since the war 165 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND I § I began, and since the Indians were engaged in fighting and not in the fur trade, had led him to suspect that the merchants were covertly supplying the rebels with goods and the justice of his suspicions had been proven. Still the clamour for passes continued, as the traders were careless of their country's danger so long as their own fortunes were being made. The general asked Lord Germaine to give him the names of the aggrieved persons that he might enquire into their complaints, adding, "It is most painful to me that Representations should reach Your Lordship without a possibility of Explaining them fully to you, ignorant whence they originate." To a London merchant he wrote that though individuals might suffer in his schemes for defence, the end would be for the general advantage. It was certainly to the advantage of the king, his master, that he should discover the rascality of a certain Niagara firm and in one single item save £5,000 for the Crown. He thought it good policy to repay Indian services by granting them the rebel lands they should win, "provided they make such conquests without any expense to His Majesty and that it does not interfere with any rights or claim of the Five Nations or any other nation of Indians." The year before Haldimand came to Canada as governor, it had been decided that the lawless district northwest of the Ohio, nominally a part of 166 EXPEDITION TO THE WABASH Quebec province, should be under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of Detroit, who had proceeded to occupy the chief post, Vincennes on the Wabash. On his recall a year later, no garrison being left, the French inhabitants were easily won over to congress, chiefly through the instrumentality of one Pere Gibault, who absolved them from their allegiance to King George. On August 27th, 1778, Haldimand wrote to Henry Hamilton, then lieutenant-governor at Detroit:— " I must therefore desire that you will immediately and by the safest and most expeditious conveyance, acquaint me with your idea of the practicability of recovering possession of the Illinois and of the means.... you should advise to be employed for that purpose with a probability of success." But Hamilton did not wait to consult ways and means with his superior officer. He was one of' Lord Germaine's correspondents and felt himself at liberty to act upon his own responsibility. In September he announced to Haldimand that he had planned an expedition to the banks of the Wabash where he said:—"The Spanish are feeble and hated by the French; the French are fickle and have no man of capacity to advise or lead them; the rebels are enterprising and brave, but want resources and the Indians can have their resources but from the English, if we act without loss of time in the favourable conjuncture." The suddenness of the move alarmed the governor-general, to whom had been 167 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND given no opportunity to send orders, nor to plan for reinforcements. What might happen at Detroit whence Hamilton had withdrawn all the people who could manage the Indians, what might happen to Hamilton himself so far from support were anxious questions to the commander-in-chief. Nor were his fears unfounded, for the next letter he received from his subordinate was dated August 26th, 1779, Wil- liamsburgh gaol, where he had been for seventy- five days and was to be for many more. How he had set out from Detroit in October of the previous year with his band of French Canadians, British regulars and Indians vying with one another in the courage and patience with which they surmounted the difficulties of the long toilsome journey by way of Lake Erie and the Maumee River, portaging thence to the head waters of a tributary of the Wabash; how he had taken peaceable possession of Vincennes, causing its 400 inhabitants to renew their oath of allegiance; how he had spent the winter at the post, and had at last been treacherously betrayed into the hands of the rebel leader, George Rogers Clark, who had treated him and his few remaining faithful followers with a barbarity conspicuous even in barbarous times—all this was most unpleasant reading for the governor in far Quebec. He classed the expedition as "a second tour de JBourgoyne," and remarked that had the 2nd Company of the 14th Regiment—which he had placed in the district while he was in command 168 RETALIATION at New York—been left there, the unfortunate episode would never have occurred. He sent an urgent letter to General Washington calling for Hamilton's release from his irons and his loathsome dungeon, lest he himself should be obliged to resort to similar extremities with the American officers then in his power; but it took time to effect an exchange, and the adventurous lieutenant-governor remained in his pitiable plight for more than a year. Brant retaliated upon a portion of Clark's army under Colonel Lockerby in October, 1781, when sixty-four out of one hundred were taken prisoners, the colonel and five officers killed. In the spring of the same year the settlement at Bowman's Creek was destroyed, and likewise the rebel fort in Cherry Valley, a district by no means so Arcadian as its name would suggest. What did he think of it all, this stern, elderly gentleman, directing affairs from his Chateau of St Louis, watching the growth of his own vine and fig-tree and decreeing that those of others should be uprooted? He was not responsible for the system of border warfare, any more than he was responsible for the war itself. He had found the evil principle of retaliation by force supreme in the world when he came into it, and the special American variety fully established when he stepped upon the continent He was aware that the only way to preserve the great western country and its remunerative fur trade for the king, his master, was to 169 li Hi Ami ■')) SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND drive back the advanced settlers. Since it was the Indian lands they were taking, he used the Indians as a scourge, but that he often wearied of the weapon is apparent from one of his letters to Lord Germaine in which he says that an exaggerated importance has been given to small and harassing excursions which merely serve to exasperate the rebels. As allies he came to despise "the copper- coloured gentry":—"In all excursions undertaken by the troops in this war, there has not been a single instance where the Indians have fulfilled their engagements, but influenced by caprice, a dream, or a desire of protracting the war to obtain presents, have dispersed and deserted the troops." After the Cherry Valley expedition, when Brant's following was praised for its moderation, it is reported that His Excellency refused to receive Major Butler, but he wrote him concerning the conduct of his Indians that "such indiscriminate vengeance taken even upon the Treacherous and cruel enemy they are engaged against is useless and disreputable to themselves, as it is contrary to the disposition and maxims of their King whose cause they are fighting." The raids might be necessary in order to keep in good humour savage allies to whom neutrality was impossible, but from the very beginning of his rule Haldimand encouraged them to make permanent settlements about the forts, bought hoes and seed corn to coax them into tilling the ground, and had grist and sawmills erected at 170 1 A MORAVIAN MASSACRE Niagara. At one time there were 4,000 Indians clustered about that post, but they were gradually drawn off to form villages at Buffalo Creek, and Kadargaras, forty miles above Fort Erie, where* refugees from Virginia betook themselves. At the cessation of hostilities in 1783, Haldimand observed that the Indians would make the United States feel the difference between a war carried on under the restraint of English troops and one conducted in their own way. Already they objected bitterly to the truce:—"Upon our agreeing to obey the orders of the General, the perfidious rebels have taken advantage of our inactivity and have come like thieves in the night, when the Shawanese warriors were out at their Hunting Grounds, surrounded one of their towns, and murdered all their women and children. . . . We are persuaded there is no reliance to be had in the faith or promises of the rebels, whose unparalleled cruelties lately destroyed the poor Moravian Indians, their near neighbours, who never went to war against them or any other people; yet under the cloak of friendship they murdered them in cold blood, and reduced their bones to ashes that the murderers might not be discovered."1 The wholesale massacre of these Christian converts was horribly revenged upon the chief agent therein, Colonel Crawford, and his rebel party, an "unhappy event" which no one regretted 1 Extract of speech to MacLean at Niagara by warriors of the Six Nations, December 11th, 1782. 171 t Hi? I':ii SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND more than General Haldimand. When we consider the treacherous attack on the Shawanese at Standing Stone Village; the horrible cruelties practised upon some of Butler's Rangers made prisoners; the murder by the Virginians of friendly Delawares near Fort Pitt; the good cause red men had for complaint that despite their kindness to ailing or helpless prisoners, captured Indians were uniformly treated by the rebels with the utmost barbarity— there is no reason for either Great Britain or the United States to reprobate one another about the conduct of border warfare 172 CHAPTER X THE GOVERNOR WHEN Frederick Haldimand returned to Canada in 1778 as governor-general, the Quebec Act had been four years on trial, and was proving no more satisfactory to the ever-increasing number of English-speaking residents than the previous ten years' attempt at the introduction of British civil law had been pleasing to the French. The latter disliked trial by jury because to their understanding it meant that the jurymen decided the law as well as the value of evidence in all cases. They were "averse to taxation, from their narrow way of thinking and attachment to money"; to the English regulations respecting tithes and rents; and to the rules of primogeniture which deprived them of their time-honoured custom of dividing and subdividing their farms among their children. "No people in the world," said Haldimand, "are more bigoted in their laws and usages." He approved of the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion, of the restoration of the French laws and the maintenance of the French language, as measures expedient for the state of affairs at the time, believing that "the Quebec Act alone has prevented and can in any degree prevent the emissaries of 178 Ml Ill SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND France and the rebels from drawing over the Canadian clergy and noblesse" There were some of the French who objected to the act on the very ground that it enforced duties to the church and to seigniors which had been optional since the conquest, but the majority were fairly well satisfied, and it was decreed that there should be a Canadian judge on the bench in each district As Haldimand had foretold, delegates from the minority were sent to England to pray for the repeal of the Quebec Act, "all under the pretence of promoting Public Utility, though too often in the mean and interested views of Private advantage." He told the "old subjects" that they need not try to force their will upon the "new subjects." His own instructions were, in effect, "if a majority throughout the Province say House, grant their desire; if they say no House, the British parliament will not force that form of Government upon them." Those who strove for the establishment of a House of Assembly claimed it on the ground "that His Majesty's protestant subjects in the Province are sufficiently numerous to summon an assembly," knowing full well that the necessary oaths would exclude the Roman Catholics as effectually as they were at that time excluded from the British House of Commons. Those who opposed it advised that "before any change is made, be sure it is agreeable to the land-holders. .. . Not a Canadian land-owner in fifty ever once thought on the subject, and were it to be proposed to him 174 1 OPPOSITION TO THE QUEBEC ACT he would readily declare his incapacity to judge of the matter. Although the Canadian peasants are far from being a stupid race, they are at present ignorant from want of instruction.... Let the Curate of each parish read to the people a paper, clear and plain, as to the nature of representative Government, and then find out if they want it There should be a free school in every parish with English masters, if the Canadians are to be English, though they can be Roman Catholics if necessary. The Quebec Act gives power to Council to make laws, and if the people are not free and happy the Council is to blame, not the Act"1 Haldimand found himself called upon to govern with the aid of a legislative body, appointed by the king, and limited to twenty-three members, but even among these he found opponents of the Quebec Act One called Allsopp headed the opposition, and exerted himself to make matters as uncomfortable for the present governor as he had done for his two predecessors. It was not until 1783 that Haldimand had him suspended for sedition. The colonial secretary under the French regime had found it profitable to keep governor and inten- dant at sword's points, so that the one might act as a check on the other, but the British minister encouraged private individuals to recount their grievances directly to himself. Thus Haldimand was surrounded with spies who knew that their calum- 1 Unlay, to Nepean, October 22nd, 1784. 175 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND nies would always obtain a hearing if presented in a manner flattering to the home government. No mean judge of men, the governor soon lost confidence in the attorney-general, and had such grave doubts of the loyalty of some of his councillors that he wrote to Germaine that he might be obliged to act more than he could wish upon his own responsibility. In his judgment it seemed unwise to lay before the council certain orders he had received from England relating to alterations in the laws of property, calculated to favour the old subjects at the expense of the new, for he said:—"A happier moment than the present is to be wished for undertaking this business." He tried to form a privy council with members he could trust, but the opposition wrote to the minister that His Excellency was withholding his instructions, and Germaine forthwith notified the governor that his civil proceedings could not merit the approval that had been given to his military measures. The merchants, it was true, had no complaints against him on the ground of partiality, but the council had a right to object if anything that the king wished them to know was not placed before the whole body. The purity of his motives and the uprightness of his intentions were unquestioned, but such disobedience, if persisted in, could not be passed over. Being thus debarred from forming a small execu- 176 SCARCITY OF FOOD tive, the governor laboured on with the whole wrangling set, though it seemed ridiculous to bring before them measures for regulating the price of wheat when half of the council were dealers in that commodity. In his address to them in January, 1780, he said:—"I should hardly have called you together had not the high price of the first necessary of Life, circumstanced as we are, commanded my attention, and required my asking your advice and assistance in providing against accidents, while the American Troubles continue, and preventing as much as in us lies His Majesty's good subjects in this province suffering from either Scarcity or Want" He did not think it expedient to put up public granaries until a time of greater tranquillity, but suggested non- exportation, since the merchants declared that fixing the price would be illegal and as bad as taxation. There was a demand for wheat in New York, and speculators in Canada had no love for the governor who prohibited "for a limited time the exportation of wheat, peas, oats, biscuit flour, or meat of any kind, also of horned cattle." Nor did the habitants relish the ordinance:—"That all grain, cattle, etc., must be ready at short notice to leave farms to be put under military protection in case of an attack by rebels." Few of those forced to use substitutes for flour (because the severe weather prevented the grinding of wheat) realized that their governor was anxiously seeking a means for the immediate reduction in the cost of provisions. He had finally to buy 177 f* 4 1 m\W SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND flour at a high price to feed the poor, and his own name heads one subscription list with twenty pounds for their relief. He directed the captains of militia to discover, if possible, who was holding the -wheat, of which there was known to be plenty in the country. The matter was a serious one for the commander-in-chief of troops that had to be fed, instead of feeding themselves out of their pay, as in England, and there seemed to be a wide-spread inclination to make money out of the government. On July 26th, 1781, Lord Germaine complimented Haldimand on his having "found means to subsist the troops without subjecting the public to the exactions of interested individuals." Councillors Allsopp, Cuthbert, L'Ev§que and Grant, all wheat-dealers, gathered about themselves a loud if not large party to cry out against the tyranny of the new ruler, even in his endeavour to lessen legal and official fees, which he declared to be generally "far too high, and more than the people of the province can bear." A foe to monopolies of every description, whether in the fish trade or in the hiring of post horses and carriages, he soon had the liquor-dealers against him, for there was a "ring" in rum as well as in wheat, and he broke it by decreeing that "the pernicious article" was to be brought from England, since the revenue suffered by its non-importation. One of the governor's few friends, Dr. Adam Mabane, was head of the military hospital, but it 178 HIS RESOLUTIONS was abolished, much to Haldimand's chagrin, not only on his friend's account, but because his soldiers would justly dislike the promiscuity of the other institutions. Asylums for the insane were, of course, unknown, and we read of a baker's wife, who had been a grass widow for two years, asking to have refunded the board money she had paid out for a lunatic in the general hospital, of whom she prayed the government would in future take charge. Some interested persons strove to make it appear that according to the Quebec Act the estates of the Ursuline nuns at Three Rivers had become vested in the king, but the governor interfered in their behalf, and he befriended the same order in Quebec by gaining for them and for their sister communities exemption from the payment of quint and other dues on account of their poverty and care of the sick. The lady superintendent of the general hospital had to thank His Excellency for eight casks of flour sent to her during a hard winter in Quebec, and there is abundant other evidence that he was not unmindful of any of the resolutions he had jotted down in his journal upon assuming his charge: "To give protection and to have much regard for the orders and religious houses; to be always polite and obliging but also to be always watchful; not to be adopted by either party; to ask time to consider things of any importance, but also to make it an inviolable rule to do whatever has been promised; not to become 179 111 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND heated in conversation, rather to leave the room under any pretext, as was the case with a bishop, who prayed in order to give time for his blood to cool; to return immediately, to listen with patience and take time for deliberation; to favour commerce and distinguish the merchants who deserve it; to have respect for the officers which is due them, to associate with them at table and in parties with the Canadians, and to require from them good conduct and the regulation of their expenses; to have good manners and show confidence in the chief justice and the procureur general and to consult them as occasion arises; to treat in the same way the Catholic clergy and make known to them the danger that their religion and their rights will be in if the rebels, and especially the Bostonnais, gain the upper hand, for it is these last who are the most interested in the reduction of Canada in order to people it with their own kind, assure their independence, and make themselves masters of commerce; their intolerance should be made known, the cures should speak of it." He might have added that these "perjured subjects " had placed "the act of the British parliament for shutting up the port of Boston" beside the heinous offence of passing " a bill for establishing popery and arbitrary power in Quebec." Even the more intelligent classes in Canada displayed what Haldimand deemed a shocking want of sagacity in being so blind to their own interests 180 ECCLESIASTICAL DIFFICULTIES as not to see that if " enslaved " by the Americans they would be entirely shut out from commercial concerns. By a vigilant watch over the clergy he kept them within the limits of duty, " at least within those of decency," but had ever to combat their "attachment to France, concealed under their zeal for the Preservation of their Religion." The bishop was under the influence of the Jesuits, whom he feared as rebel sympathisers, but there were now so few of them in Canada, and these were such old men, that the governor did not think it worth while to interfere with them. But he set down his foot upon the introduction of any more priests from France, and sent back two that came out from the seminary of St Sulpice in Paris to join their order in Montreal, judging the relations between the two institutions to be already over close for the safety of the province. The four priests from Savoy whom he was bringing out to fill Canadian vacancies were captured by the enemy en route, and landed in Europe, but the governor asked for their return, or for others of the same nationality, since it was necessary they should be able to speak French. The people did not care what order of priests celebrated mass, so that they were allowed to enjoy the ceremonies of their religion, but the heads of the church were displeased, though the general gave frequent instances of his resolve to support their authority. When the inhabitants of Riviere Ouelle complained against their curi, he referred 181 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND them to the bishop, and sharply censured the captain of militia for obeying the people in warning their priest to leave. To keep the house of Bourbon, Britain's foe, from gaining an incalculable influence in Canada through her clergy was his leading idea, and for a vacancy in the bishopric he recommended M. de St. Hubert, sometime missionary to the Illinois. Another cause of complaint against Haldimand's civil rule were the corvies, as if he had invented them. Apparently this was one of their ancient laws and usages which French Canadians did not care to perpetuate, though in the old days they had been paid nothing for their labour, but ever since the conquest had been given wages at current rates. Whether the service required was sawing and chopping wood for the garrisons, building huts for Royalist refugees, improvement of roads, manning vessels to protect the fisheries, or transporting provisions to the upper posts, Haldimand exercised the greatest care to see that it did not bear too heavily upon any one section of the community. "Thorough" was the qualifying adjective that might be applied to every department of his rule, whether frontier raids or corvees, secret service, or public works. He did not create systems, but he employed those already in existence with a conscientious energy so unprecedented as to bring down upon himself the accusation of tryanny that still clings to his name. 182 QUEBEC CITADEL There was much hauling of timber and many labourers required for the building of barracks and storehouses at Sorel, where the government, in 1780, accepted Haldimand's advice and bought the whole seigniory with a view to having a stronghold against the expected rebel advance by way of the River St Francis. The fortifications of Quebec itself scarcely deserved the name, being of wood, now in a rotting condition, and it was their commanding height alone which preserved them from attack, since the guns were only eighty-one cannon and a few mortars brought up from old frigates. The governor decided to take steps towards the building of a citadel of permanent character in stone, "in such a situation as, assisted by the Engineers, I shall be able to judge is most advantageous." The wrong tools were sent out in the first place, and that he should ask for a corps of artificers merely surprised the home government, but he did what he could without them, employing Loyalists on the works, and was well satisfied with his engineers, headed by Captain Twiss. Secrecy seemed to be necessary in this as in every branch of the service. The governor issued instructions that the timber required for the works should be secured as quietly as possible, " to prevent the inferences of curious people and the enhancement of the price." Without efficient miners and quarriers it would be the work of years to carry out the proposed plans upon the rock of Quebec, but meantime 183 JP! ? mm- w SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND every possible advantage was taken of the ground, and detached redoubts were placed here and there on Cape Diamond. It was not safe to send the citadel designs to England d^uring the war, lest they should fall into improper hands, and when Captain Twiss took them over himself in 1784, he reported that Lord Townshend showed no interest therein. Haldimand's course of action always met with the approval of the king and his ministers when he had conquered his difficulties without their aid or encouragement. Knowing what it meant in his own case to receive no sympathy from masters he was faithfully serving, he never grudged it to those working under him for the good of the public. The letters of Captain Twiss clearly show that he counted upon the governor's active interest in all he had to tell him, even about the marvellous air balloons he had seen in London, and the discovery of the new planet "Georgium sidus." This was the man to whom was entrusted the construction of four small canals on the St. Lawrence, the first in America. Colonel Haldimand witnessed the distressful loss of life in the rapids while descending the Great River with Amherst in 1760, and he had since been forcibly impressed with the immense cost and labour of transporting provisions to Carleton Island. Obstacles, in this man's mind, did not call for surrender but for removal, whether they consisted of rebel sympathisers or rocks in the river. His engineer began operations by attacking the jutting points so 184 EARLY CANALS hard to circumnavigate in that part of the St Lawrence lying between its enlargements, Lakes St Francis and St Louis. By the end of the season of 1779, the canal at Coteau du Lac could be used, though its walls were made of timber and by no means waterproof. Captain Twiss resolved to rebuild them in stone, and as the work of blasting difficult rocks could be continued all winter, he was able to write to his commander in June, 1780, " I wish Your Excellency could see this post, as I am persuaded it will be formed into locks as useful to navigation as any in the world." The governor did visit the works in person, and buoyed up by his advice and support, the engineer refused to be discouraged by the want of skilled workmen. In February, 1781, he reported that the canal at Cdteau du Lac was " very complete and in good order, and so situated that it cannot possibly receive the least damage from the ice, but many difficulties still remain in the navigation about the Cedars, where*a little labour, properly conducted, would be of great advantage to the public." The first canal had three locks, with a depth of two and a half feet on the mitre sills, and was 900 feet long by 7 wide. The exertions of 1782 were designed to conquer the long portage at the Cascades, and for this purpose channels were cut at Faucille, Split Rock and Trou du Moulin, six feet in width, one of them 400 feet long, the others 200 feet each, and these, 185 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND with a later enlargement of locks, did duty until superseded by the Beauharnois Canal in 1845. The western traders being as great gainers as the government through this improvement in navigation, gladly agreed, at a public meeting called for the purpose, to contribute to the cost of construction and maintenance of the canals by the payment of tolls. An average of 260 batteaux a year, contributing twenty-five shillings each trip, brought in an annual revenue of £325; the government boats could pass free. The governor-general visited Montreal the summer of his arrival in Canada, and it is on record that he was present at a representation of The Sacrifice of Abraham, in the College of St. Raphael, 1778; that he gave 100 guineas to the establishment and 50 to the city hospital. The college so honoured was at that time located in the CMteau Vaudreuil, which used to stand on the corner of St. Paul street and Jacques Cartier square, but was burned at the beginning of the nineteenth century. On the same occasion His Excellency decided to purchase for a government house the Chateau de Ramezay in Notre Dame street, belonging to William Grant, which he thought might be made strong enough to serve as a citadel in case of insurrection. He was in Montreal again for three months, March 15th to June 15th, 1782, and during that time paid one visit at least to Captain Twiss to see how he was getting on with his canals. 186 PRISONS In 1784, " the citizens and burgesses of Notre Dame de Bon Secours" petitioned him to allow the widening of their street by the removal of a postern which prevented the passing of vehicles. Since the " imbecile " walls of Montreal had proved no defence against invaders, there was no objection made to the removal of the gate in question. The previous year His Excellency had authorized a lottery to raise funds for the building of a prison, there being no suitable place of detention for the numbers of rebels brought to Montreal by the frontier raiders, together with those captured on privateers. Many of the Americans being left at large broke their parole and made their escape. It was their comrades who had to suffer for their breach of faith, since the governor, however willing, could grant no more privileges. Quebec also was short of prison accommodation, as the old French gaol was too insecure to detain even the wives of soldiers and sailors taken up for selling liquor without a license. The house of the Recollcts was examined for its fitness as a debtors' prison, but was pronounced unsatisfactory. There were but 1,500 houses in the whole place at this time, Carleton during the siege of 1775-6 having pulled down 500 that he could not defend. As the war wore on towards its termination, another attempt was made, in Montreal to get Parisian priests into the seminary, by a M. Brassier, who tried also to make the people believe that the 187 11 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Quebec Act would be repealed at the peace, that the council would no longer have power to make laws and therefore the Americans would kill Canadian commerce. Even while peace negotiations were hovering in the air, Lord Shelburne wrote secretly to the governor—April 22nd, 1782—that a large fleet was preparing at Brest, and should it escape the watchful British squadron, Quebeckers might expect to hear of its arrival in the gulf, adding that although there was no doubt of his zeal and ability successfully to defend the capital, "so great is the determination to retain Quebec, Carleton himself will be sent there, if necessary." Here was a compliment to a man who had worked as hard as Haldimand to maintain the charge entrusted to him! He wrote at once to Carleton, who had succeeded Clinton in command - at New York, stating that he was ready to leave whenever he came, and began to prepare for departure ; but Sir Guy replied that he had not left Canada with the intention of ever returning. His decision did not heal the wounded feelings of the governor, who wrote to Townshend in November: —"I have been 43 years an officer, a Stranger to Politics and to a Language which does not proceed from the Heart. My situation is a most painful one, considered as commanding here only until a junior officer shall find it necessary or convenient to supercede me." He fancied his foreign 188 DREAD OF FRENCH INFLUENCE birth to be the cause. "I never imagined that the Consideration which with Propriety influenced the Conduct of the King's Ministers in the year 1775, could after four years' service be revived to my mortification, in the year 1782, when the state of Public affairs is so materially altered," To Sir Guy Carleton he had written on July 29th:— "I shall neglect nothing which can contribute to the success of this unfortunate war of which I confess to you I could have wished to see the termination, but the circumstances in which I find myself, added to an indisposition which requires resources that this country does not afford, leaves me less regret in quitting." Urged to remain at his post, he consented to wait through the winter, but asked to be allowed then to retire to Europe. The fleet in question had been intended for Canada, but Lord Rodney met and vanquished both French ships and Spanish. Less successful were the land operations, and galling was it to the governor to hear of Canadians, led by Caughna- waga Indians, going off to see the French fleet and army at the Chesapeake. He sent out parties to try to intercept them on their return and thus prevent exaggerated accounts of French superiority, French victories, and French plans reaching eagerly credulous ears. England's defeats evidently gratified her new subjects and though they came duly "to render Fealty and homage to His Majesty, according to the Antient Laws, Customs and Usages of 189 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND this Province, as they stood and were observed before the year 1760," the governor reported:— "It is with much Concern I acquaint Your Lordship that I have myself perceived Secret Pleasure from the hope Strongly marked in the countenances of many who make their Bows to me." Still he laboured on for the good of an ungrateful people. He forwarded Canadian timber to the navy yard, was proud to receive the king's thanks for the Nova Scotia masts for his ships and offered to supply the same at Gibraltar. He sent Surgeon Blake, "to investigate, report and use remedial measures in respect to the St. Paul's Bay disease," a contagious trouble of an ulcerous character that affected the country districts during the whole of his regime. He caused a census of the province to be taken, wherein the militia officers were to be called upon to assist the parish priests, and they counted 113,012 in the more thickly settled districts, Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec, so that the total number of people was estimated at about 120,000. To Haldimand belongs also the credit of having founded the first public library in Canada, which had an existence of ninety years, and in 1869 was merged into that of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. He may have wished to provide reading other than the British newspapers which so often contained political discussions and articles in sympathy with the rebels. Even the Quebec Gazette, the first paper in Canada, founded in 1764 190 THE FIRST LIBRARY by Messrs. Brown & Gilmour, from Philadelphia, had to submit to censorship, and on one occasion some accounts of treasonable associations in Ireland which might have proved too suggestive to Canadian malcontents were cut out. It was written of this local sheet:—"When the printer gets a cup too much, which is not seldom, he inclines to the popular cause." To General Bude\ on March 1st, 1779, the governor wrote that Quebec's few resources and its people's ignorance had suggested to him the scheme of opening a public library and that the bishop and the head of the seminary had both promised to assist Many priests, most of the English and a few of the Canadians had signed the subscription-list, agreeing to pay five pounds at entrance and two pounds annually. In order not to allow their zeal to cool, he asked the directors to prepare a list of desirable books, up to the value of £500. In September he wrote to his friend, Richard Cumberland, the playwright, knowing his taste for letters, and asked him to select works for the proposed library, which he hoped would serve as a bond between old subjects and new; and assured Mr. Cumberland that any favour shown to this enterprise would be considered as personal to himself. In 1780 the books began to arrive, welcomed heartily in some quarters no doubt, though a contemporary says, "There are two ladies in the province, I am told, who read, but both of them are above fifty and 191 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND itii they are regarded as prodigies of erudition." Nevertheless, the Canadian women were better educated than their brothers, many, even of the seigniors, being unable to write their own names. The proclamations issued by the governor at different times, cast a curious side light upon the period:— "It is ordered that the Shilling loaf of Brown Bread do weigh 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and the Shilling loaf of White Bread do weigh 3 pounds three quarters and that Bakers do mark their Bread with the Initials of their names." House-holders are obliged to make a foot-path in front of their dwellings, four feet wide, level with their neighbours, and no horse-back riding is allowed thereupon. The street in front of each house is also to be kept clean by the tenant in summer and he must level it free from cahots in the winter-time. "All persons bringing provisions, provender, firewood or anything in a sleigh for the supply of Quebec, shall carry a hoe and shovel that he may use it in levelling cahots at any distance within three leagues of the town, under a penalty of five shillings. "It is ordered that all posts placed in any of the streets of Quebec be immediately removed on pain of 20/. "No horses or hogs are to be suffered to stray in the streets. If one of the latter be found the Bellman is to proclaim the fact at once and the finder will return it to the owner upon payment of ten 192 THE POSTAL SERVICE shillings and all charges, but if the hog be not claimed within two days the finder is at liberty to keep it " No person shall clean fish upon the public streets, especially large sturgeon, nor throw dust, ashes, water, soot or filth of any kind upon the thoroughfare. In lower town, rubbish is to be placed upon the beach at low tide, and the upper town refuse is to be disposed of in the same way upon the beach outside Palace Gate, near the intendant's palace. "No one shall beg without a license, nor shoot partridge between March 15th and July 15th." The inefficiency of the postal service is indicated in the following public notice from the deputy postmaster:—"The Mart of Letters sent from hence last fall by the ship London, are now returned into this Office; those Gentlemen who are desirous of having their letters again are requested to give in the Subscriptions, and impressions of the Seals, in order that the right Owners may receive them." June 4th, 1782. A mail-carrier of Montreal "begs leave to acquaint the Publick that he is obliged to pay for all Letters delivered to him the Day after he receives them; he therefore is under the necessity of requesting that all persons will in future pay for their letters on delivery, otherwise he must return them to the office, and as change is difficult to be procured, their own Bons or notes will be taken in payment" 193 mv\ I nm\ \m\ SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND The governor of the province was obliged to depend chiefly upon his scouts for news of the outside world. He suggested that they always- appear dirty, as if they had been long in the woods, and advised them to make use of a hollow tree for the reception of rebel newspapers. One of Major Carleton's expedients to get possession of rebel letters, supposed to be passing to and from the house of a certain madame in the country, was to send a smart young lad to court her servant girl. All intercepted papers were delivered to the governor sealed, along with their bearer under a strong guard, as he wished no news to be made public till it was authenticated. Haldimand hated the necessary evil of constant espionage, and the man who said he encouraged informers was arrested and made to eat his words. To a correspondent the governor wrote one winter that he was buried under a mass of papers which he hoped to reduce to order before spring. Method and exactness characterized all the workings of his clear brain, and with the help of his secretaries he plodded patiently through the mass of documents, dictating the necessary replies to the British ministry, to commanders at distant posts, to secret intelligence agents everywhere. As it was the king's express desire, he consented to remain in Canada till the peace negotiations were concluded, though well aware that he would have to renew his wrestling with agitators bent on seizing 194 AN ELECTIVE ASSEMBLY the opportunity for a change in the form of government. It was his own opinion that alterations in the Quebec Act might now be made with prudence, but though easy to repeal, it would be hard to replace. Knowing the men who were clamouring for a legislative assembly, he could not credit them with disinterested motives, nor did he believe that the establishment of such a body would justify the annual expenditure of the £12,000 necessary for its subsistence. If an elective body had been at the head of affairs in 1775, he was convinced that Canada would now have been a fourteenth state. 195 f CHAPTER XI THE VERMONT AFFAIR HALDIMAND'S first encounter with the trouble among the settlers in that part of the country lying between the Connecticut river and Lake Champlain was during his term as commander-in-chief at New York, when he refused the request of Governor Tryon to send troops to disperse certain rioters in that region, who, in his judgment, would be more fitly dealt with by the civil authorities. The difficulties had arisen years before that, even as far back as 1749, when the governor of New Hampshire began to give grants of land in the territory claimed also by New York. A decision in favour of the latter colony was made by the king's ministers, when the matter was referred to them in 1764, but the people of the New Hampshire Grants stoutly declined to be governed by New York or to yield their farms to the claimants whom she was sending in. Two parties displaying legal titles to the same property are liable to come to blows, and when local riots had resulted; a majority of the dwellers in the debatable land resolved to have a government of their own. Why should not a new state called Vermont be received into the confederation? Ethan Allen and his Green 197 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Mountain Boys defied the sheriff of Albany to settle real estate squabbles, and they showed their mettle likewise by the capture of the forts on Lake Champlain at the beginning of the revolutionary war. When it was well under way, the embryo state of Vermont made, on January 15th, 1777, an individual declaration of independence:—"Whereas the Honourable the Continental Congress did on the 4th of July, last, declare the United States in America to be free and independent of the Crown of Great Britain; which declaration we most cordially acquiesce in. And whereas by the said declaration the arbitrary acts of the Crown are null and void in America. Consequently the jurisdiction by said Crown granted to the New York government over the people of the New Hampshire Grants, is totally dissolved." New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts were at first not unwilling to recognize Vermont as a state, but the southern members of the confederacy were averse to disturbing the balance of power by the admission of another northern constituency and deemed it dangerous also to establish a precedent whereby their own back settlements might any day form themselves into states. New York's steady opposition caused her to be regarded by the aspirant as "a more detested enemy than Great Britain," but the continental congress supported her, decreeing :—" That the government attempted to be established by the people of Vermont could derive 198 til OPENING NEGOTIATIONS no countenance or justification from any act or resolution of Congress." The United States now present so strong a front to the world that one is apt to forget the weak and disjointed units of which they were composed. So fierce had been the rivalry among the colonies ever since their foundation, that it was a matter of surprise that they could unite for any purpose and the stability of their union was questionable throughout the revolutionary war. "The province of Georgia is ours," wrote Sir Henry Clinton to Haldimand, in 1779, and the following year it was currently reported that South Carolina had returned to her allegiance. That Vermont should do so was considered extremely probable—in England—and on March 3rd, 1779, Lord George Germaine directed Clinton, the British commander at New York to open negotiations with her. To Haldimand also he wrote:—"The drawing over the Inhabitants of the country they call Vermont to the British Crown appears a matter of such vast importance for the safety of Canada, and as affording a means of annoying the northern revolted Provinces, that T think it right to repeat to you the King's wishes that you may be able to effect it, though it should be attended with considerable Expence." Haldimand replied that he would do his best to reclaim the people of Vermont, though he considered them "a profligate banditti." How Sir Henry progressed he told in a letter to 199 'I I i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the Canadian governor, dated September 9th, 1779: "Another object still remains of the greatest importance, I mean my expectations respecting E. A. whom I have already mentioned to you by several messengers—I saw the moment for tempting him and I believe my offers have been accepted." The message from Ethan Allen was a verbal one, that gentleman being ever chary of committing himself to writing:—"Upon my promise to use my interest with Government that his District should be a Separate Province, he would join us with at least 4,000 men." Haldimand was not given to hasty judgments, nor was he of so sanguine a temperament as his colleague to whom he wrote in cipher the next summer:—"I have taken much Pains, by Prisoners and intelligent Loyalists to discover if anything might be effected with Allen and the people of Vermont—I am assured by all, that no dependence can be had in Him—his character is well-known and his Followers or dependents are a collection of the most abandoned wretches that ever lived, to be bound by no Laws or Ties. Allen formed Connections in this Province when he first invaded it, and I make no doubt has Emissaries here now—if you can bring Him over and that he proves faithful, it will be a great Event, but you have everything to suspect from his character—in all events if he should be able to coliect about 4,000 Men, I do not think it would be advisable to trust 200 ETHAN ALLEN Him with Them in this Province in its present weak and disaffected Situation (it being impossible for me to collect in any one Situation half that number to oppose Him) for under a Pretence of joining the King's Troops he may watch his opportunity and with the assistance of the Canadians, or upon the appearance of a French flag, seize upon the Province." The redoubtable Ethan found another tempter in the person of Beverly Robinson, colonel in the Royal Regiment of New York and himself an American, anxious for the relief of his distressed country, in which he desired to know whether Mr. Allen was willing to join in the way that had been reported to him. Most of the Vermont people, he understood, had refused to support "the wild and chimerical schemes" of American independence and should a reunion with Great Britain be approved, a separate government would be formed, and any regiments raised would be commanded by officers of Mr. Allen's choosing. This communication being made known to Governor Chittenden, of the state unrecognized by congress, he was emboldened to write to the President of congress on July 25th, 1780:—"If the United States have departed from the virtuous principles upon which they first commenced the war with Great Britain and have assumed to themselves the power of usurping the right of Vermont, it is time, high time, for her seriously to consider what she is fighting for, and to what purpose she 201 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND has been more than five years past Spilling the Blood of her Bravest Sons. This Government has dealt with severity towards the Torys, confiscated some of the Estates, imprisoned some, banished some, hanged some, etc., and kept the remainder in as good subjection as any state belonging to the Union. And they have likewise granted to worthy Whigs in the neighbouring states some part of their unappropriated lands, the inconsiderable avails of which have been faithfully appropriated for the defence of the Northern Frontiers." Congress took no notice of this epistle and in the autumn Chittenden wrote to Haldimand proposing an exchange of prisoners. To meet the British scom- missioners—Captain Justus Sherwood and Dr. George Smyth, both American Loyalists—Chittenden appointed Colonel Ira Allen and Major Joseph Fay, who were empowered "to transact such other business as may then be judged proper." The Canadian governor agreed "that this negotiation should cease and any step that leads to it be forgotten, provided the Congress shall grant the State of Vermont a Seat in their Assembly and acknowledge its independency." He gave orders that during the negotiations no scouting parties should be despatched to the east of the Hudson river nor to any part of the country claimed by Vermont. Ethan Allen stipulated at first that there should also be a cessation of hostilities "against any of the northern posts and frontiers of the State of 202 PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS New York," but a month later he withdrew the proviso, saying that the cartel was to be with Vermont only, as she was having too much trouble with her usurping neighbour to ask any favours on her behalf In writing to congress, however, Mr. Allen took credit to himself for the four weeks armistice he had secured to a government which had "but little claim to my protection." Colonel Beverly Robinson, having received no reply to his letter of the previous year, feared it had gone astray and wrote again, whereupon Ethan Allen in March, 1781, laid the two epistles before congress, a proceeding for which he excused himself to the British emissaries by saying it was known to the country people that such letters had been received and an appearance of openness would disarm suspicion concerning the real nature of the negotiations. To congress he wrote:—"I do not hesitate to say I am fully grounded in the opinion that Vermont has an indubitable right to agree for terms of cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, provided the United States persist in rejecting her application for a union with them; for Vermont of all people would be the most miserable were she obliged to defend the Independence of the United Colonizing States and they at the same time at frill liberty to overturn and ruin the Independence of Vermont I am persuaded when Congress consider the circumstances of this State, they will be more surprised that I have transmitted them the enclosed letters, 208 »» SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND than that I have kept them in custody so long; for I am as resolutely determined to defend the independence of Vermont, as Congress that of the United States, and rather than fail, will retire with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate caverns of the mountains and wage war with human nature at large." No further information was vouchsafed to congress that year, though there was much going on at the north of Lake Champlain which would have been of intense interest to that body both individually and collectively. The signals Allen arranged with the British to mark the approach of his messengers were "three smoakes on East side of Lake opposite shipping, and at the middle smoake a small white flag hoisted on a staff." When these tokens were observed the British commander had orders to take the messenger on board at once without asking his business. Ira Allen, Ethan's brother, remained in conference with Sherwood at Isle aux Noix from May , 8th to 25th, 1781, but made no particularly good impression, since the British emissary wrote to his chief:—"He has such a cautious and suspicious kind of reserve in all his conduct that I must confess it gives me reason to believe that his journey is only to alarm Congress." And again:— "Col. Allen's Dark and intricate manner of proceeding in a negotiation to which one of His Majesty's oldest and ablest generals has, in the 204 SUSPICION OF THE ALLENS most Humane, Frank and generous manner, condescended to open a door, obliges me to sometimes view him with contempt and always with suspicion, much strengthened from his coining alone, while I well know they have men much more capable from age and Experience to transact a business of this nature." So strong was the feeling of distrust concerning him that an agent was sent in advance of Colonel Allen's return among his own people, to gather what report he should give them of his mission to Canada. Major Dundas, the British officer whose province it was to attend to the exchange of prisoners which actually took place, formed his own opinion of the "shuffling business"; declared Ira Allen's errand to be a sham; and that he was scheming for delay to see how congress and the "claiming states" would act on the news getting abroad that Vermont had sent a flag on her own responsibility. Suspicion of the Aliens was not confined to the British. General Schuyler of New York State had spies at work watching their movements, and Washington himself was reported to have said that "the People of Vermont, after behaving well in the war, was now Endeavouring to unite with Britain, which, if they persisted in, he would turn his back on the common Enemy and lead his whole force against that State and destroy it Entirely. But if Vermont would stand by him in the Common Cause till the close of the War he would 205 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND ensure them to be a 14th State." This would have been entirely satisfactory to the Vermont leaders had they perfect assurance of what the end of the war was to be, but Colonel Allen for one was "determined that Congress shall not have the parcelling of his lands to their avaricious minions. Should Britain by some d d turn of Fortune gain a victory over the combin'd Fleets, all Europe would not be able to contend with her, and he would give allmost his Fortune to be able at this time to know what will be the fate of America." Schuyler wrote to Washington:—"I heard Allen declare to one Harper that there was a north pole and a south pole, and should a thunder gust come from the south they would shut the door opposite that point and open the door facing the north." Meanwhile the exchanging of prisoners went briskly forward. On one occasion 117 men, women, and children were delivered up to the Vermont officer at Skenesborough (now Whitehall, N.Y.) in return for twenty-three families of Loyalists. It was surprising how many of the captives in British possession claimed to be from Vermont, and Haldimand reported to Lord Germaine that "some Inhabitants of the neighbouring States begin to retire there for safety." It was dangerous for any of the adjoining countrysides to express sympathy with the trials of Vermont, as the districts to the left and right of her found when she included them within her borders, another shrewd stroke, for by claiming territory as 206 1 VERMONT DIPLOMACY far as the Hudson river the neutral zone was extended; and if she asked more than congress would ever grant, there was the more likelihood that the limits would be conceded to which she was with some justice entitled. Upon Ira Allen's diplomacy Haldimand reported to Clinton, June 6th, 1781:—"He adduced the Extension of their Jurisdiction as a necessary Preparation to a Reunion, as well to strengthen them against the power of Congress as to aid in reconciling the people to our views, many of the new subjects being well disposed to Government. This is plausible if not sincere. The business is transacted with the utmost Precaution and Secrecy by a Man well acquainted with their Arts, and in whom I have perfect Confidence." Colonel Allen sent the Canadian governor an account of the June meeting of the Vermont assembly, whereat he had been asked to produce papers relative to his negotiations with the British. These he had purposely left at home, but he made a speech which he was assured had been satisfactory to spies both from the other states and from Canada. His idea was to demand from congress terms which he knew could not be accepted, and then it would be represented by people in favour of government that congress meant to settle nothing till the end of the war, when she would divide Vermont among the various claimants. After the new election he judged that more officers leaning towards the British connection would be placed in 207 i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND power, "and then the advantage of another denial by Congress, and having the reins of Government in their hands, they will make a resolution so long wished for by many." Haldimand looked upon the various pretexts for delay with the utmost suspicion, but in the meantime he was glad to have one of his carking cares removed—the fear of an invasion by way of Lake Champlain. "Nothing can be done against this Province without the help of Vermont," he wrote to Clinton, and none knew better than he that should the fortunes of war turn towards Great Britain, Vermont would be profuse in offers of assistance no longer needed, but if the scale showed signs of swinging the other way, she would hasten to make her peace with congress. In six months he judged she would be a valuable acquisition to either side. He told Lord Germaine that the Vermonters, "if once united with Congress, would be very formidable Enemies, having been from their Early Contests with their neighbouring Provinces continually in Arms. They are in every Respect better provided than the Continental Troops, and in their principles more determined. These considerations, with the impossibility of acting from this Province except in great Force (owing to their inhabiting that part of the Country bordering upon Lakes Champlain and George, Hudson and Connecticut Rivers, ready to a man to turn out upon the first alarm with provisions upon their Backs, and pos- 208 li HATRED OF NEW YORK sessed of a Strong Country where they can attack and harrass a Corps in the most advantageous Situation), have always made me anxious to prevent the Union they seem so bent upon accomplishing." The persistent refusal of the Vermont delegates to commit themselves in writing was one evidence of bad faith, and they had shown no symptoms of their professed desire to overcome the "violent prejudices" of the people of their state against the British connection. Ethan Allen wrote General Schuyler "that notwithstanding the late reports, or rather surmises, of my corresponding with the enemy to the prejudice of the United States, it is totally without foundation"; while to the British he declared "that the people of Vermont were not disposed any longer to assist in establishing a government in America which might subject them and their posterity to New York, whose government was more detested than any other in the known world." Ira seconded the sentiment:—"Sooner than submit to it they would see Congess subjected to the British government, provided Vermont could be a distinct colony on safe and honourable terms." Major Fay, the other Vermont emissary, was no more trusted by Haldimand's agents than Colonel Allen was, though his letters were suavity itself:— "I wish it was in my power to remove every suspicion you may have against the good intentions of the People of Vermont, but I can only assure you of my own and that I have not the least Doubt 209 §m 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND you may rest equally assured of such of the others as are made acquainted." The number "made acquainted" was necessarily few, since it would have been an arduous task to explain the subtle policy of these "honourable men" to a scattered population of 30,000, from whom the Tories had been well weeded, leaving a remainder who believed congress to be "next to God Almighty both in Power and Perfection." "Such is the Enthusiasm of the Vulgar for their Idol, Independence," said Haldimand, "that nothing but unavoidable necessity will ever induce them to relinquish it." For the justification of the chief Vermont agent, should his actions be called in question by his countrymen, the council of the state gave him a paper, signed by half a dozen of the leading men, to this effect:—"Whereas Col. Ira Allen has been with a Flag to the Province of Quebeck for the purpose of settling a Cartel or Exchange of Prisoners, and had used his best Policy by Feigning or Endeavouring to make them believe that the State of Vermont had a desire to Negotiate a Treaty of Peace with Britain, thereby to prevent their immediate Invasion or Incursion upon the Frontiers of this State .... we are of the opinion that critical circumstances this state is in, being out of union with the United States and thereby unable to make that vigorous Defence we could wish for—think it to be a Necessary Political measure to save the Frontiers of this State." 210 . mm 1 SKIRMISH AT CROWN POINT To Sir Henry Clinton, Haldimand wrote on October 1st, 1781:—"The Leading men in our interest advise, as a last resource, my issuing a Proclamation, confirming to Vermont the late assumed territory and other privileges, thinking that from the late refusal of these by Congress the people may be inclined to accept of terms from Government This Proclamation they desire may be followed by a force equal to support the friends of Government who wait for opportunity to declare themselves and to awe those in opposition." Colonel St Leger was sent with 1,000 men to occupy Crown Point; and to lull the suspicions of the Vermont people a force under their own general, Enos, was stationed across the lake. The two commanders knew that they were not to come to blows, but their subalterns not being in the secret, a skirmish took place in which a sergeant of the local troops was killed. Colonel St Leger returned to General Enos, with an apology, the prisoners taken on the occasion, sending also the clothing of the slain soldier with the message that he would be given decent burial, and any of his friends who wished to be present at the same would be permitted to cross the British lines. "What is the meaning of this astounding courtesy?" the people demanded of Ira Allen, and he replied, "Ask St. Leger," who was on the eve of responding with Haldimand's proclamation when disastrous news came from the south—Cornwallis had surren- 211 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND 1:1 i if 1 |f||| Hi ill I II dered. Here was the excuse for further delay that Colonel Allen wanted. He notified the Canadian governor that everything had been going on well until the British reverse was reported, but he hoped the general would have patience till the spring, when the number of people who dreaded the arbitrary measures of congress would be greatly increased. CornwaUis capitulated on October 19th, but it was the middle of November before the news was confirmed in Quebec. Haldimand wrote to the British ministry that it was now out of the question to dream of reclaiming the Vermonters, who were "rioting in the excess of licentious exultation," but Lord Shelburne advised him to get their confidence and make them remain neutral by "open and honourable Dealings, avoiding the least appearance of Insidiousness." To Clinton, Haldimand wrote in the spring of 1782:—"The crisis is arrived when coercion alone must decide the part Vermont will take, and that measure should be determined upon from the minute the troops, directed by Lord Gfeorge to appear upon their frontiers, shall take post, and must be carried into execution as far as possible, after giving them sufficient notice, by laying waste their country, if they do not accept the terms offered." On the first day of the same year, General Washington had written to Thomas Chittenden:— "I will only add a few words upon the subject of the 212 il it WASHINGTON'S VIEWS negotiations which have been carried on between you and the enemy in Canada and in New York. I will take it for granted, as you assert it, that they were so far innocent that there never was any serious intention of joining Great Britain in their attempt to subjugate your country; but it has this certain bad tendency: it has served to give some ground to that delusive opinion of the enemy, upon which they in a great measure found their hopes of success. They have numerous friends among us, who only want a proper opportunity to show themselves openly, and that internal disputes and feuds will soon break us in pieces; at the same time the seeds of distrust and Jealousy are scattered among ourselves by a conduct of this kind." The conduct had to be continued, however, and the Aliens must plunge deeper than ever into double dealing to have any hope of impressing their sincerity upon General Haldimand. At the beginning of the negotiations they had declared openly their preference for congress should she grant as good terms as Great Britain; but despairing of getting them, Ethan Allen wrote to the Canadian governor: "It is Liberty they say they are after, but will not extend it to Vermont" His state should be a neutral republic and already were the people so roused against congress that he believed if a vote of the assembly were taken the majority would vote for British connection. As for himself he was willing to wait upon His Excellency at any part of Lake 213 1 If I IP IS ill SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Champlain where his own life would not be in too great danger, adding in conclusion: "There is a majority in Congress, and a number of the principal officers of the Continental army continually planning against me. I shall do everything in my power to render this state a British Province." Ira Allen went further still in proposing that Haldimand should enter into a secret treaty " to be signed and ratified by Governor Chittenden, General Allen and the Council, declaring Vermont a British Province." He had been sent by these rulers " to negotiate a reunion, and privately authorized to engage in behalf of Vermont that the authority and most of the populace in that state are desirous to become a British state on the conditions proffered by Your Excellency. They have likewise promised to abide by any engagement I shall enter into for them, provided the same be kept a profound secret until the British government can protect and assist them, and provided they shall not be obliged to go out of Vermont to make war with the other states. They will receive the king's troops and garrisons and will join them to oppose any troops or forces that will invade Vermont to prevent her reunion with Britain. They have likewise promised never to take arms again in opposition to British government, nor to assist Congress on any pretence whatever." To answer for I the populace " was a bold saying even for Colonel Allen, since the body of the people 214 ;:« PUBLIC OPINION IN VERMONT undoubtedly thought themselves very well off in the existing state of affairs. This unaccountable truce with Great Britain had kept their borders free for two years from the raids that had devastated other states, and they were in no haste to be taken into the union and share the burden of the war debt Mr. Cossitt, a Loyalist clergyman, who had called upon Ethan Allen, reported that gentleman's professions of fealty to the British government to be somewhat overdone, in view of the fact that the minutest details of his negotiations with His Excellency were now being laid before congress, while Dr. George Smyth wrote that Washington wanted to .keep open the cartel door, and had agreed to furnish prisoners for that purpose. But General Haldimand wished to gain time no less than the other party did—time to get instructions from the new British Cabinet as to how long "the interesting pursuit of reclaiming Vermont" was to be kept up. The state of affairs (reported to Haldimand's agents) in 1783 was that one-third of the ruling men in Vermont were for government on sound principles; one-third for attachment to their own state and hatred of New York; the other third would be governed by the fortune of war. The common people would willingly accept any government except that of New York; the Aliens were firm for the Crown, and Chittenden would be led by them. In reality New York was bound that 215 i m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND '; Vermont should not be a state, and the latter was bound that she should, though she had to fight her way in, opposed by the whole thirteen colonies. Early in 1783, the preparations being made at Albany for a professed attack upon the advanced British posts on Lake Champlain, were said to have the ulterior design of subduing Vermont. She certainly roused the ire of Washington by persisting in trading with Canada, though Haldimand said he could not sanction free traffic till he received his instructions from England. He told Ethan Allen, however, that he would admit no trade that would militate against his interests, and a letter of Joseph Fay, dated September, 1783, returns thanks to His Excellency for the opportunity to dispose of cattle belonging to Colonel Allen and himself. The former stated his resolve to do nothing in future respecting political matters but under the direction of General Haldimand, whom he considered the " Guardian of the People." Troublesome wards His Excellency found them, and Lord Germaine was no prop: " I am really at a loss what instructions to convey to you at present respecting the conduct you are to observe towards the people of the state of Vermont, as much will depend upon the reception their propositions shall meet with from Congress. The language they have held to you has, to be sure, been somewhat extraordinary. I do not see how it is possible for us, consistently with the Treaty of Peace, openly to 216 THE NEGOTIATIONS CLOSED interfere in their disputes, and on the other hand I think it difficult to refuse to take them under our protection should they be determined to become subjects of Great Britain. The matter in a great measure must therefore be left to your judgment and discretion." Haldimand decided to stop the intercourse. In 1791, the claims of New York against her territory having been settled by purchase, Vermont became a fourteenth state. She may well be proud of her leading men so far as their devotion to herself is concerned, and the average citizen is disinclined to enquire too closely into the moral quality of actions performed by state heroes, provided they accomplished the ends in view. " All is fair in war," it is said, but looking upon these nine large volumes of manuscript letters merely as character studies, the unbiased reader closes them with a strong impulse towards the reversion of popular verdicts in Vermont and Canada. Cannot a few superfluous laurel leaves of the Aliens be claimed for the gentleman of Switzerland who fulfilled the promise he made at the outset of the negotiations, and acted always "with the sincerity of a soldier, unpractised in deceits and chicane " ? 217 CHAPTER XII AUTRES TEMPS AUTRES MCEURS * * rilHE Canadians talk continually to their horses JL when whipping them—'Alhns, mon Prince; Pour mon G&n6ral? or oftener, (Fi, done, Madame.' I thought they meant me, and I said, 'PlaU-ilV 'Oh,' replied the driver, *I only meant that little rogue, my horse." After this manner has the Baroness de Riedesel recorded in her diary various quaint episodes of her, adventurous journey into Canada with her three children—four, two years, and ten weeks old—to join her soldier husband. A brave little lady she was, head and shoulders above any modern heroine of revolutionary romance as her writing is above that of the romancers, because true; but it is with her Canadian experiences alone we have to do. "Whenever we met peasants they made me their obeisance, crying, 'the wife of our good General* and carried me almost on their shoulders. It gave me great joy to perceive that my husband had made himself so acceptable and to hear them say, 'How pleased he will be I'" She found the country people very hospitable, living in good houses with three or four spacious rooms and curtained beds in each. The annual 219 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND if 1 ill li 1 S" application of whitewash "gives to the Canadian villages an appearance of great neatness and makes them visible from a considerable distance. The space around each house is successively filled up by the settlements, which the young people, on their marriages, make around their parents. They call themselves, on that account, 'habitants' or settlers, and not peasants. Each habitation has its own stables, garden and pasturage scattered along the banks of the St. Lawrence, they contribute much to the romantic aspect of the scene." Each had its little orchard also, and the hogs and cows were driven into the woods for pasture, returning to be milked and fed. The lady thought the swine would surely die if shut up in sties, as in Germany, and she found them a fine breed, partly wild and partly tame. A cheerful folk, the habitants, singing and smoking the whole day. "Many of the women have wens or goitres, but generally the Canadians are a healthy people and live to a great age. It is not rare to find among them a great-grandfather who dwells with his descendants and is the object of their kindest attention. After a journey of about two months from the time we had left New York, we reached Quebec in the middle of September, 1781." Another lady writer, the wife of an English officer, gives a less flattering picture of the habitants, describes them as being poor farmers, too lazy to do more than turn lightly over the clods of 220 1 THE HABITANTS earth before throwing in the seed, and scorning the use of manure, which they throw into the river. She thinks the numerous festivals of religion incline the people to idleness, and remarks that they never walk, as every man owns a horse. Undoubtedly, they^ lived up to the advice given by the Indians to their forefathers—"to use dancing, mirth, cheerfulness and content, as the best remedies against the inconveniences of the climate." "Never was there such a race of dancers," says the same author, "I have seen daughter, mother, and granddaughter in the same French country dance." Her account of a ball in Quebec at which there were three hundred persons present and three quarters of them men, draws a sigh from the modern wall-flower. How the vivacious French Canadian belles coquetted with the British officers, how they sauntered on the summer evenings "on a particular battery which is a kind of little Mall," how upon New Year's Day they sat "dressed in form to be killed," awaiting the arrival of the usual gentlemen callers who drove up looking "like so many bears in their open carioles all wrapped in furs from head to foot," with nothing exposed but the tip of the nose, is entertaining reading and so is the lady's description of the opening of navigation: —"From the time the ice is no longer a bridge on which you see crowds driving with such vivacity on business or pleasure, everyone is looking eagerly for its breaking away to remove the bar to the con- 221 ill!.! I* If II II li i Mil If ill SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND tinually wished and expected event of the arrival of ships from that world from whence we have seemed in a manner excluded."1 The opening of the river was always viewed from Cape Diamond by crowds of both sexes and all ranks, but none would watch for it more anxiously than the governor from his Chateau of St. Louis. To General Bude' he wrote one March 1st, "During our sequestration from the rest of mankind our time is spent in enjoyment and dancing, hoping for good news in the first days of May." It is recorded that he gave a grand ball and supper at the Chateau on January 18th, 1784, in honour of the Queen's birthday, and it may by some be attributed to the fact of the evening being a Sunday that there was a terrific snow-storm and gale from the northeast which carried away the cross on the steeple of the parish church or cathedral. Chimneys were blown down and the steeple of the Recollets * was thrown into their garden with a dreadful crash. There had been an earthquake on the 2nd inst. and another on the 12th, but no damage was done and gaiety went on. Admission to the Quebec theatre was one dollar, and the public was requested to have the even sum or tickets ready, as no change would be given. The upper classes dined at two and so were ready for the evening's diversions. The doors of the playhouse opened at five o'clock in summer for a day- 1 "The History of Emily Montague." 222 1; WINTER AMUSEMENTS %ht performance, as in Shakespeare's time, but in winter they opened an hour later. Such dramas were presented as Miss in Her Teens; High Life Below Stairs; Love a la Mode; The Upholsterer; The Fashionable Lovers; and even Macbeth. The plays were often varied with singing or other music. The succession of festivities in Montreal was almost overpowering. Walter Butler of the Rangers said it was harder work than scouting, and he had to keep himself in form by a snow-shoe tramp around Mount Royal with a comrade every other day. The defeat of the congress troops in their attempt to take Quebec was celebrated in the ancient capital every 81st of December by "an elegant Entertainment" given to the governor and his suite by the gentlemen of the British militia; and His Excellency always held a brilliant assembly on the King's birthday, June 4th. On one occasion at least this was supplemented by "fireworks outside St. Lewis Gate, to the entire satisfaction of a numerous concourse of spectators." Besides the balls at the Chateau, there were subscription dances held regularly at Menut's house on St. John street, and there was another place of' entertainment kept by one James Park out on the Ste. Foye road. Mr. John Frank's long-room witnessed a celebration of the Queen's birthday, " by the Gentlemen of the Army and the Merchants of this city. The company was numerous and brilliant 223 ;IH m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND notwithstanding the extreme badness of the night. The dancing began at seven o'clock and continued till one, when the company sat down to a magnificent and sumptuous supper, where after drinking a few general toasts the dancing was resumed and continued till seven o'clock next morning. The whole was conducted with such just propriety and decorum, that it reflects the highest honour on the managers of it." An elegant entertainment was given Lieutenant- Governor Cramahe on his departure for Europe, and indeed the livery Quebec people never ceased to seek occasion for jollity. As one of them writes: —" It may not be unworthy of remark, that whilst the more intelligent statesmen are busied in predicting the fall of Nations, and the vast similarity between the state of Britain and Carthage, a remote province of the Empire has exhibited an Entertainment, the expense, profusion and elegance of which may vie with the most celebrated repasts of Appicus. On the 18th was given a Conversa- zatione* by the harmonious conjunction of civil and military. The dancing commenced at eight, after the necessary prelude of Tea and Coffee, and was tcon- tinued with that gaiety and apparent satisfaction, the ever concomitant attendant of the amusements and diversions of this metropolis." Of course there was plenty of war talk, some of which reads strangely in altered conditions. One man remarks that if the revolted colonists realized that 224 "W^"*" AN ANXIOUS YEAR they were merely being used by the French and Spanish for their own purposes, "they would hide themselves with their native Brethren, Squooks. .... If an Earthquake would swallow up America I apprehend the Powers of Europe would keep their balance without a groan." The year 1781, was a particularly anxious time and the inhabitants both of Quebec and Montreal took occasion to present loyal addresses to the governor, assuring him of their services in case of expected rebellion. The other side was in no less straits, if the Quebec Gazette of April 19th is to be believed:—"The following accurate Copies of Original Letters are part of a Rebel Mail lately intercepted by several of His Majesty's Loyal Subjects. And as they give a lively description of the opposite interests of the Congress and the Leaders of the Rebel Army—Of the embarrassments of the latter in respect to supplies, etc.—Of the depreciated state of their paper currency— Of the depressed condition of the Rebel Marine— And contain the most decisive proof of a concerted scheme to establish a Military, upon the ruins of a Civil government, they are given to the public for their information and amusement." Two of these letters are from Richard Langdon, son of the President of Harvard College; others from Generals Green, Parsons, Knox, Glover, Paterson, Huntingdon, etc., and one from CoL Hamilton, aide to Washington. 225 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND The Gazette was forbidden to meddle in politics, but no objection could be taken to sublime instruction imparted in the Poet's Corner:— AMERICA AN ELEGY Where, where alas, are fled the hlissful hours, Which parent fondness all indulgent gave, When blest obedience own'd superior pow'rs, And British Freedom crossed the Atlantic wave ? Blest times ! When Royal Brunswick's hallow'd name, Rude nations heard with reverential awe ; And souls assenting to Britannia's fame, The charms of liberty with transport saw. iiil! Ill And hark ! from yonder slowly-pacing cloud Some vocal shade informs the raptur'd muss "America with lineal worth endow'd " Again shall rise to Albion's lofty views. "Here Cultivation shall resume her toils, "Fair fields around each Hybla Village shine " And Sons of Freedom reap the golden spoils "Which Fraud and Faction impiously decline." • "Hail, unborn Freedom ! unborn Glory, hail! If And hail! prophetic thoughts of future days. "When Britain's prodigals, with duteous zeal, "Shall crown the parent with immortal praise." Nor could any exception be taken to the publication of "A comparative View of the different circumstances of the People of America in the years 1773 and 1778 in respect to (1) their government which could stand no comparison with that of Great Britain, having the seeds of perpetual 226 EXTRACTS FROM THE GAZETTE dissension and incessant discord sown in the Constitution ; (2) Protection, which no other nation but England was either willing or able to give; (3) Laws, the present code being made without a model and therefore surpassing the most arbitrary edicts in rankest despotism; (4) Religion—Nothing had been gained by disestablishment since the Presbyterians' democratic form of worship, their hatred of Popery and talk of themselves as the Elect were to blame for the revolution. In fact under the new regime there was no security either for person or property, for Agriculture or Manufactures. Commerce was ruined by the war and taxes were being levied by * mushrooms' from the dunghill." How the colonies could continue on their mad career after such a presentation of plain truth is surprising! Benedict Arnold's "Address to the People of America" was published in the Gazette, and therein were stated the reasons for his somewhat peculiar course of action. He had imagined the war to be one of defence only, until the French joined it, and he was heartily disappointed that the United States did not end the strife after Great Britain had given them all they asked for. He preferred to trust England rather than France who "is too feeble to establish your Independency, so perilous to her distant dominions; the enemy of the Protestant faith, and fraudulently avowing an affection for the liberties of mankind, while she holds her native sons in vassalage and chains." 227 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Of far more interest to the Quebeckers would be the letter to the printer, dated December 6th, 1781, on the burning question of the smallpox:—" I learnt a few days ago that a Surgeon of Eminence in this City had imported from England, some infectious matter for the purpose of introducing the Smallpox by Innoculation, and that he proposed to make an experiment on two children to try the quality of it. That the favourable Success of the Practice of Inoculation hath highly recommended it throughout Europe I will readily allow. But what are the Reasons of its being so useful there? In all Kingdoms of Europe the Smallpox prevails naturally; and few arrive at any age without having been infected with it; and all are liable to receive an unfavourable sort, at a time when their Bodies are not in a proper State for its Reception Here the malady prevaileth not naturally and thousands of grown Persons have never had the infection. It is now arrived from 3,000 miles distance; it is taken from we know not what Subject, and is sent by, we know not whom. In this case, therefore, one of the principal Ends of Inoculation is not answered, viz., the Certainty of a favourable Infection. But the Doctor intends trying the Quality of the Infection on two children and to inoculate no others till the Quality be thereby ascertained. I am of opinion he has not explained his Intention to the Parents of those Children, because I think no Parent would permit him to 228 111: INOCULATION FOR SMALLPOX execute it. .... If it turns out a bad sort Infection will spread, but even if good how few can receive the Infection by Inoculation ?" Poor people, he argues, cannot pay a surgeon and this one has not offered his services gratis. Bodies that are not well nourished are not fit for the purpose, as the disease may take a more virulent form in them and the contagion spread. A medical writer of great repute has said that more harm than good is done by inoculation, but for himself he is no enemy to it though he should like to have the choice of saying whether his children shall take the smallpox naturally or be inoculated. There were many others in a like case, some mothers wishing to have it over and done with, while the fathers objected, or vice vbrsa. From Three Rivers came the report (Sept. 9th, 1783) that "there is strong Desire for it in all the English Inhabitants and in many of the Canadian families." Surgeons were coining from distant parts of the country to get matter for inoculation, but none had been given nor would be given without the governor's orders. The great argument against it in Canada was the number who had not had the disease " but by Discouraging that useful Practice and great improvement in Physic the number will be every day increasing and make the Danger of the Disease in the natural way so much the more alarming." Surgeon Barr believed in the encouragement 229 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND of inoculation, so as to have the disease always in the country, as in England,- and Haldimand had no objections, provided the people wanted it, but he was decidedly averse to having experiments made at the upper posts, and this letter was sent from headquarters to the commander of one of them, on November 2nd, 1783:—" His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, having learned that Mr. Gill, Mate of the General Hospital, has been so imprudent as to take from Montreal to Carleton Island Small Pox matter for the purpose of Inoculation, I am directed to signify to you His Excellency's positive Command that he may not be permitted to make use of it, but that it may be taken from him, and that you will Yourself, see it buried so deep under Ground as to prevent a possibility of its having any Effect—and if unfortunately, any use should have been made of it before you receive this His Excellency desires you will send the Parties infected to the most remote part of the Island, with a Guard to prevent all Communication with them—for should the disease get amongst the Indians the consequences to them and to the King's Service would be very fatal. In all events the Intention must be carefully concealed from the Indians for if the Infection should by any Accident make its way from Hence to them it would infallibly be attributed to that cause." The letter did arrive in time, its instructions were carried out and the captain was able to write 230 \m\ -JKTM SLAVES AND SERVANTS to his chief that though there was sickness at his post it was nothing more serious than the measles. After the peace, in 1784, the governor told Sir John Johnson he must be held responsible for the expense if he continued to supply with provisions the Indians who were bringing their children to Montreal for inoculation. To have had the smallpox was considered a recommendation for a servant, as well as a means of identification for escaping bondsmen. At the census taken in 1784, there were 212 slaves in Montreal, four in Three Rivers, and eighty-eight in Quebec There frequently appeared in the Gazette the cut of a stumpy negro in African dress accompanying the advertisement for runaways, whether men or women, though their costumes varied. The Mulatto Negress Bell for whose return a reward of four dollars was offered, was barefooted and wore a striped woolen jacket and petticoat, while "a Mulatto Fellow call'd Jacob about eighteen years of age, had on when he went away a light brown fustian Coat, white cloth Waistcoat and Breeches and a round hat." Apprentices were almost as much the master's property as slaves. Four guineas were offered for the return of one, while the recovery of a negro rarely earned more than fifty shillings. For several weeks this advertisement appeared: "RUNAWAY from his Bail an indentured servant Christian Miller, a tailor from Germany, middling long black hair, 231 I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND has very much the cut and behaviour of a sham beau, formerly servant to a Hessian officer, a variety of cloathing viz. a Maroon Coat, a brown ditto lined with light blue silk, the one Gold, the other Silver buttons, a brown Great Coat and a variety of Waistcoats and Breeches." Five guineas reward for return to his master in Montreal. There is a hero for a novelist. To be a servant of any kind was no sinecure in those days, if one is to judge by the requirements called for:—Wanted "A single man, middle age, steady, honest, sober, that can comb Hair,—cut wood—dress a beef-steak occasionally—receive messages—in short wanted a Servant that can live always at home and undertake the management of his Master's affairs and give him as little trouble as possible." Occupations were often combined which in our time call for specialists. Tryphina Cameron's business card tells of her proficiency as a "Clear Starcher, Milliner and Mantua Maker." One Agnes Galbraith from Edinburgh who states that she has served an apprenticeship to millinery and has been also for several years governess in a genteel boarding school, takes in clear starching and opens a boarding and day school for young ladies, where particular attention will be paid to morals and the pupils instructed in white and coloured work, tambour, embroidery Dresden work, besides being taught millinery, drawn work, and the making of gimps and fringes. By 232 III : EARLY EDUCATORS other advertisements it appears that "every useful and ornamental branch of needlework" and " exterior Deportment and Behaviour," were the chief departments in women's education, though the ladies who kept a boarding and day school at the corner of the Grand Parade mention that the little ones will be instructed in "Reading and Spelling." To Mr. John Pullman's advertisement for male pupils in Montreal there is this annex:—"N.B. The young ladies will be taught in a separate Apartment. Funerals compleatly furnished on the most reasonable Terms and on the Shortest Notice." Advocates for co-education might cite this as vital evidence in support of their views. The Grey Sisters of the Congregation taught demoiselles in the country to read, write, and knit stockings. A boarding school at Clapham Common tried to wile the English girls of Canada across the Atlantic for their education, but many were well content with the schools of the Ursuline nuns at Quebec and Three Rivers. There they learned to speak French, a first requisite for the British minority and in itself a means of culture which old country people were quick to appreciate. Admiral Sir Charles Douglas wrote to Governor Haldimand in June, 1784, from aboard the Assistance just arrived at Halifax, that he had brought out with him half a dozen young gentlemen with a Scottish tutor who were to be boarded in separate 233 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND If houses where only French was spoken and were to meet only on Sunday for a Church of England service. Sons of earls and admirals, how they fared among the Canadians history sayeth not. Mr. J. Tanswell, the most enterprising schoolmaster of Quebec, advertised the teaching of French "after such a method that the most Common Capacity, with very moderate application may with ease become master, both in Theory and Practice of that Ornamental and Necessary Language." The same gentleman had classes for young ladies where they were taught " reading with propriety," English and French grammar, writing, arithmetic, geography and history, either at his own house or in his academy in Parlour Street, near the Bishop's Palace. He had a dancing school three nights a week, with monthly assemblies to which a limited number of parents and friends were admitted, and still he craved employment for his "leisure hours," if he was to continue his educational efforts. Apparently His Majesty's Royal Quebec Academy was not a paying institution. Mr. Tanswell petitioned the governor in 1784 for leave to draw three years' salary for his services, in order to meet expenses resulting from bad debts, etc. He stated that he had "spent the first twenty years of his life in acquiring a universal education"; that he was assistant in English schools, at the head of one in London for seven years, and in 1772, was prevailed upon by certain gentlemen 234 THE REVEREND JOHN STUART of Nova Scotia, "to cross the Atlantic in order to plant the liberal Arts and Sciences in that Country." Five years later he had left Halifax for Quebec at the request of Sir Guy Carleton. In 1778, John Grout applied for a license to set up a school in Three Rivers; and the same year the Loyalists at Machiche chose for their preceptor a Mr. Cass, and it is to be hoped they were able to treat him more liberally than the next incumbent, John Adams, whose wife petitioned the governor for "a continuance of the allowance or that her husband be relieved from teaching school gratis, so that he might employ himself to obtain support for his family." None of the schools were self-supporting and government grants were always in demand, though the people of St. Johns raised subscriptions to give forty-eight pounds a year to their teacher, the Rev. George Gilmore. Clergymen were frequently found in the profession, the Rev. John Stuart for example, Virginian by birth, but ordained in England, who came to Montreal from Albany where he had left behind him a "bondsman" for whose relief he prayed that an exchange might be effected. He started a school in connection with a Mr. Christie who proved incompetent and the partnership was dissolved. The governor played the censor on their advertisement:—"I directed the words 'principally intended for the children of Protestants' to be left out, as it is a distinction which could not fail to 235 i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND li Rill ill if create jealousies, at all times improper, but more particularly so at present." A town plot at Cataraqui (Kingston) was marked out for Mr. Stuart in 1784, as he longed to minister unto his fellow Loyalists there, but Haldimand advised him not to give up his Montreal academy till the other position was secured. In 1786, he opened a school in the new settlement and became rector of the parish in which the garrison was situated. For this reason he thought the government should build him a house, but he was told that he must erect his own dwelling, though Major Ross would lodge him in the fort till it was done. This Reverend John Stuart was the forerunner of the Episcopal Church in Upper Canada. Besides being guardian of the people at large, His Excellency exercised a fatherly care over his officers, too often led into extravagance, for Quebec was "an expensive quarter." None of them could marry without his sanction and perhaps as a bachelor himself he was not always ready to bestow it. There was Captain Schank of the navy wanting to marry a widow who wrote herself to the general asking permission, but was told that he did not approve of his officers marrying during such active service. The enamoured captain probably perser- vered in his suit, for a month later he received a letter from headquarters saying that the whole time of an officer was required for the duties of his department, and as his "other engagements" seemed 236 i Marriages and deaths to interfere with their performance he was requested to send in his accounts that a successor might be appointed. But the general must have been conciliated, for the banns of marriage between Schank and the widow were published at Three Rivers in the autumn and the captain was still on the general's staff the following spring. A lieutenant who wants to wed sends a recommendation from his colonel; a captain is told that he must get permission both from the bride's father and Sir John Johnson; while even the surgeon has to propose to the governor, after the lady, or perhaps beforehand. In the face of these difficulties thrown in the way of hymeneal rites, it is interesting to observe the laudation of the brides usually appended to the marriage notices:—"The many virtuous, amiable qualities, which this young lady so extensively possesses are strong presumptions in favour of the parties enjoying every happiness the married state affords." Deaths are similarly commented upon:—" On Friday last,the 2nd inst., was interred the most pious, most respectable and most virtuous Ann-Lucy- Magdalen Becher, spouse of Lieu-Gen. Thomas Clarke, Colonel of the 31st Regt. The Clergy, the Nobility and Citizens zealously attended her Funeral being all of them actuated by a principle of love, respect and gratitude. It would seem as if Providence had delayed her departure, by fixing it for the day after her death, in order that our Province 287 If 5 \ SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND might be honoured with her precious remains; which after admiring her virtues, esteems itself so happy in being the depository of them, that its tributes of love, respect and veneration can only cease with the fives of its inhabitants. General Clarke's embarkation deprived his very humble servants of the opportunity of waiting on him with their compliments of condolence and of wishing him a happy voyage. It is pleasing to reflect that the tenderness he had for the Lady is an authentic proof of the virtues she practised in a religion different from his own." The governor was ever strictly impartial in his dealings with his officers, would not allow any to advance by favouritism over the heads of others, and extended his system into the militia. Two captains of the local troops at Kamouraska were told that they were to be placed on a perfect equality, and that the seat of honour at church was to be common to both. He censured an officer for carrying a debtor away from his creditors, as it was customary for either civil or military persons about to leave the province to put a notice to that effect in the local paper:—" Mr. David Cairns now at Quebec, who some days ago resigned his commission in the Royal Highland Emigrants, requests those in the Province who have any demands upon him to make them without delay, that such as are just may be paid; and those in possession of any of his Drafts to present them to the persons on 238 li' PROVENDER whom they are given, for payment before his departure." August 4th, 1778. Travelling had more than a spice of danger as a variety. Madame de Riedesel says she went to Montreal one day by sledge on the river and on the next a ship came sailing up. She is our best informant upon the housekeeping of the time, though much of her account is applicable to-day, such as the manner of freezing fish and fowls to keep them all winter. Most of the Quebec supplies came from the well-tilled Island of Orleans. Meat was plentiful, but fruit and vegetables scarce, so madame cultivated her garden, under the able direction of General Haldimand. She was highly entertained by the Canadians fishing for tommy- cod through holes in the ice, and by their expeditions into the spring woods with pots and kettles to " make what they call maple sugar." "The soups they eat are very nourishing, and generally consist of fresh meat, vegetables and pork all boiled together, but they have no second dish." Sometimes they made soup out of the wild pigeons that came in great flocks and were prepared for the table in fricassees, "dressed with a cream sauce and small onions." Black, red and gray foxes were abundant, their skins bringing good prices on the Quebec market, but few deer were seen except in winter when they crossed on the ice. General Riedesel remarks on the ptarmigan, which he calls a white partridge, the 239 1 in i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND snipe, wild ducks and geese, and a black and yellow bird, the size of a canary, so sweet a singer that the habitants call it rossignol du pays. The Canadians then, as now, were fond of music, hence the advertisement of the arrival of "5 Elegant piano fortes" on the last ship. The importer agrees to take pupils for the instrument as for the " Guittar, Violin, Flute," and to teach also " Singing, French and English at 24 lessons for one guinea and one guinea entrance." Everything comes from London, from "fine old red port" to a "neat and fashionable assortment of gauze ribbons, white, black and blond lace, Marseilles quilting; muslin and muslin patches; Serge-de-nim and eallimanco ladies' shoes; men's black, green and white hats; gentlemen and ladies' beaver gloves, lined with flannel; Spanish whitening; fine Florence oil; thyme and penny royal; camomile flowers; universal, political, town and country magazines; Mogul, Henry and Merry Andrew cards; scented and plain hair powder; cephalic snuff, etc." The baroness has somewhat to say on the dress of the period:—"The Canadians of the lower classes wear large cloaks of scarlet cloth; the wealthy ladies have cloaks of the same size but of silk, and they never go abroad without that article of dress. The latter wear, besides, a covering for the head, with large knots of different colours, which may be considered as a sign of nobility, and upon which the ladies of rank pride themselves so much, 240 m COSTUMES that they could find it in their hearts to tear it from the head of the plebeian woman bold enough to wear it. The large cloaks cover sometimes very ordinary and mean dresses. The female garb consists besides of gowns and jackets, with long sleeves and (for the street) large hoods, which not only cover the head, but almost the whole face, and which in winter are stuffed with down." Men at the same season wear " entire coats of beaver and casques on their heads like knights." Gentlemen were by no means confined to the sober garb of to-day, as we see by a glance at the Gazette advertising column of articles for sale September 10th, 1781:— " Rich black and new fashionable colour'd silk for vests, Genoa and Moloshskin Velvet for Breeches, variety of figur'd silk velvet for winter vests; an elegant assortment of the most fashionable buttons. Broad cloths with suitable trimmings; second, middling, hunters and forest cloths; superfine and other Rateens; Beaver and Bath coatings; fine white buff and new fashion colour'd Casemirs ; fine India Dimities Sattinets, Jenets, pillow Fustians, Thicksets, Corderoys; best silk and super fine worsted Breeches pieces; silk, cotton, thread and worsted hose; neat Shoes and Pumps ; best Beaver middling and low-priced hats ; gloves of all sorts ; gold and silver lace, ditto epaulets; hat-bands and frogs for Gentleman's cloaths ; great variety of gold, silver, pearl, steel, gilt, plated and other buttons." 241 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND [|| t r, How novel it would be to drop into an auction sale of household furniture, including:—"Mahogany dining, tea and night tables, a large mahogany four-post Bedstead with green Harceleen furniture, Windsor and other chairs, looking glasses, a set of elegant Prints framed and glassed, a large double Carron Stove, Carpets, a large Mahogany Bureau, window Curtains, feather Beds and Bedding, a good Jack, etc." A milliner advertises, "Elegant caps, Laces, hats, cloaks, silk shoes and slippers; stays of all kinds in the most fashionable tastes; beautiful Lutestrings; Sattins, Sarsnets and Persians, silk and leather gloves, perfumery, etc.;" while a goldsmith and engraver in the Parade Quebec "has received from London a general and genteel assortment of Goods such as: Double gilt Hangers, silver-mounted ditto, Steel ditto, polished steel hooks for ditto, Morocco belts with Swivels, elegant Paste Shoe and Knee buckles; Lockets, Pearl, Garnet, Paste, etc., with shirt buckles of the same quality; Mason's Medals and Broaches; Rings, Snuff boxes, double gilt Canes, best plated Candle sticks, Porter Cans with covers, Quart and Pint, ditto without; Inkstands, castors, best Rowel Spurs, bottle Tickets, Japann'd Bread basket, Tea trays, etc." Our ancestors were nothing if not " genteel." A house to be sold is " well-calculated for a private Genteel family." " Genteel and elegant assortment of Dry goods too tedious to mention, to be sold for 242 ROMANCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES ready money or short credit." A young man wants to earn his living by attending in a shop, " or in some other tolerable genteel way." A friend of General Haldimand hopes the latter will give good advice to a young man he is sending to Quebec, whose faults are all of a genteel kind, " lude women, strong liquors, and indeed all the fashionable vices in general." "On Sunday morning last about nine o'clock His Majesty's 44th Regt. of foot (now in Garrison here) was review'd on the heights of Abraham by His Excellency General Haldimand, on which occasion the genteel appearance of officers and men gained them great applause." Colonel de Tonnancour, commander at Three Rivers, often sent the general a fine bass, tongues, moufflcs, or other choice portions of moose or elk, but one springtime he wrote upon a very different matter. An impertinent surgeon's mate had dared to engage the affections of his daughter Manette. Would it please His Excellency to remove the obnoxious medico to a distant post ? Haldimand knew the name, Thomas Prendergast, as belonging to one who had been arrested for insubordination a couple of years before, but there was much sickness at Three Rivers just then, and he could not be spared. The governor agreed to send Prendergast away as soon as convenient, but the autumn found him still at Three Rivers and M. de Tonnancour wrote twice to His Excellency urging the fulfilment 243 1 1*31 f f II i L*T Ml 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND of his promise. In the spring came a letter from Manette herself, giving her side of the story, telling the governor of her affection for Dr. Prendergast despite the opposition of her relatives. The summer passed and again mademoiselle on behalf of her lover implored the assistance and protection of His Excellency, whose reply has not been preserved. A romance with an ending is that of Horatio Nelson, captain of the Albemarle, whose presence in Quebec in 1782 is certified by a letter from him to Haldimand asking for a pilot. He needed one by land as by sea, according to the story that is told of him. To give his men a chance to recover from the scurvy, Nelson had remained a month in port, and he wrote to his father:—"Health, that greatest of blessings, is what 1 have never truly enjoyed until I saw Fair Canada. The change it has wrought, I am convinced, has been truly wonderful." Quebec had other charms than that of climate for the young captain, who had fallen desperately in love with one of its belles. The Albemarle was ordered to New York, and on the eve of setting sail, Nelson had bidden farewell to his lady love, but at the last moment he came ashore again, vowing that sooner than part with Mary Simpson he would let the ship sail without him. Tradition has it that he was on his way to her house when he was met by a friend who had him carried by force on board his vessel. Nelson lived to fight another day—so did the young lady. She afterwards mar- 244 SHOP-BREAKING ried Major Mathews, the governor's secretary, who rose to the rank of colonel, and at his death was governor of Chelsea Hospital Paul Jones is another distinguished seaman who stalks through the general's correspondence, where tragedy and comedy walk side by side, as in the old Gazettes:—"Saturday night about twelve o'clock the window of a shop in the lower town was broke open and a few of the most handy things carried off. . . . How amazing it is that notwithstanding the very recent melancholy example of the most condign capital punishment inflicted for crimes of this nature, that yet they should still persist in the practice of them." Better to repent now than "to express great sorrow and contrition at the whipping post or under the gallows." A long exhortation follows to the thieves "dancing on the edge of a precipice," with a concluding injunction to householders to fasten their doors and windows. Haldimand considered the Canadian horses remarkable only for draught, a good one for the saddle being rare, as they were mostly too thick in the shoulders and apt to trip. Curiosity is excited concerning the quality of the mares that Mrs. Butler, wife of the famous ranger, used to drive in her chaise. We do not feel so far removed from the eighteenth century when we see a reward offered for the recovery of a "New Yellow Oil-cloth Um- brello, lent and not returned; name inside near the middle," nor as we read, "Reward offered of £100 245 M SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND for detection of any one committing the Infamous, Scandalous, Injurious and Shameful practice of Clipping, Mutilating and Debasing the currency." A recipe for making potato bread and another for "Softening the hardest female heart" appeal to men and women of the present, who are no less fond of experimenting with patent medicines than were their ancestors. A certain "Attenuating Tincture" proved a sovereign remedy for rheumatism, sciatica and kindred ills in the case of one eighteenth century dame who used only half a bottle. The domestic servant problem loomed as large upon that horizon as upon our own:—"Mr. R. Gray, at New Gardens, near Quebec, having two likely, healthy, negro women, both brought up to house work, the one aged about thirty and the other about eighteen years, is desirous of disposing of one of them as they disagree together. They have both had the smallpox, and can be well recommended." Books were of more value then, as a reward of two dollars each is offered for the return of the first volume of Langhorn's "Plutarch" and a couple of others missing. The Gazette has every week a prose essay of high moral tone upon such subjects as "The Influence of Taste upon Manners," "On Gaming," "Politeness," "Thoughts on Prejudice, Flattery and Virtue," "Definition of Beauty and Means of Preserving it." The last was the production of a local writer, but most of the matter was borrowed. Poems on "Winter," "Wealth," "Ode 246 M ESSAYS AND POEMS to a Red Breast," "On Time," "Modern Heroes, by an Enemy to Duelling," "An Old Bachelor's Reflections on Matrimony," "The Dance of the Heavens or Music of the Spheres," acrostics and so on could always find space for themselves, but the encouragement to local talent was scanty in view of lines like these "To the Quebec Poet, On his late inimitable Performance":— Desist! Vain pedant, crack no more your head; Thou wast not born to write poetic lays, To poize the scales and retail skeins of thread Is yours, bat not to wear a crown of bays. Your verse I view'd with an impartial eye, Explored the meaning with a critic's care, But sorry am my judgment can't descry One line of sense, one verse of measure there. Let me advise (if in the Mufti line) Resume your ells and measure out your stuffs; If you're a pedagogue I pray decline, Nor hurt our senses with such peurile puffs. Montreal, February 10th, 178S. 247 CHAPTER XIII THE LOYALISTS ON August 12th, 1775, General Gage, penned up with his troops in Boston, received an unappreciated honour in the shape of a letter signed "George Washington." Complaint was made therein of the treatment given to members of the continental forces whom the fortunes of war had placed in British hands, no attention being paid to the fact that the sick and officers were thrown into the common gaol as felons. Gage denied the charge, said that his prisoners were treated with care and kindness, but begged leave to call General Washington's attention to the abuse of His Majesty's loyal subjects who had either to die of hunger or take up arms against their king. If this was done in retaliation for his behaviour to prisoners, it was "barbarity founded on falsehood." The American commander-in-chief afterwards went further and ordered that those who recused to bear arms in the revolutionary cause should be put to death. The Canadian governor said of forty men who had taken refuge in his province^yet did not wish to serve it, that he could not "think of putting them into confinement leaving them no other alternative than to serve contrary to their inclinations. 249 Ml I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND I 1 Some means must be found to employ them, as it would be certainly improper and perhaps unsafe to let them go about the country, though their imprisonment would discover a harshness very discouraging to men who profess loyalty." Washington and Haldimand had many characteristics in common: the same patience under difficulties, the same lofty ideal of duty; but the attitude of the former towards Loyalists to whom he could recommend only suicide, is in striking contrast to the latter's kind treatment of rebel prisoners. He was specially thanked by General Schuyler for his care of the men, women and children brought to his door by frontier raiders, and we have his own letter of instructions to the officer in command at Montreal to let a number of those unfortunates proceed to their friends as soon as the weather moderated sufficiently for them to travel. Parties from the revolted colonies who wished to remain under British rule were told to report themselves at Sackett's Harbour, Oswego and Niagara, where large numbers were fed and sheltered. The armed boats upon Lake Champlain were kept busy transporting refugees to Isle aux Noix, and no smoke, flag or other signal of their presence along the shores was disregarded, though naval officers and men ran great risks of being decoyed into landing under false pretences and being cut off from return. The crimes against inoffensive people committed 250 II THE LOYALISTS in the name of patriotism were enough to make an honest lover of his country choose another word for its expression. The Loyalists were no less patriotic than their neighbours. Like the more sane and better balanced party that controlled events at the beginning of the French revolution, they believed the rights of the people could be gained by constitutional measures without recourse to mob law, leading on to individual persecution, anarchy and the guillotine. The Conservative party in any state has not usually been considered by broad- minded historians to be lacking in patriotism; on the contrary, the very dislike to change which leads its members to bear the ills they have rather than fly to others that they know not of, has, time and again, proved a saving brake upon the wheels of the more progressive party. Past record should count for something, and had Britain shown herself, through every change of ministry, determined to tyrannize over the colonies, there would not have been found therein so many intelligent people ready to trust to her ultimate righting of wrongs which pressed as heavily on them as upon any other class of the community. During the Seven Years' War, French and English officers were very fond of exchanging civilities when opportunity offered, and neither nation grudged the other the credit due for the bravery of its troops; but in a civil war, angry passions fill the whole heart, leaving no room for the common instincts of 251 I Iff In! SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND 111 humanity. As soon as the war between the Northern and Southern States was ended, there was a necessity for healing the breach, if the two were to live together in union, and every means was taken to gain that end; but in the revolutionary struggle, no less a civil war, permanent division between parties was the outcome and there was no necessity for acknowledgment of the possible virtues of the losing side. It is only in our own day that American historians are beginning to take wider views of the subject and to disavow the teaching of their ancestors regarding the Tories who were " to be avoided as persons contaminated with the most dreadful contagion and remain as their just demerits, vagabonds on the face of the earth." Laws were passed by congress, as well as by separate states, for the furtherance of this laudable end, and individual enmity found ample scope in the popular practices of tarring and feathering, ducking, rail-riding, and other pleasing sports at the expense of their betters. British officers who wished to sail for England after the peace went by New York at the risk of insults from the populace. The commander-in-chief in Canada highly resented this conduct and to one of his subordinates who wished to sojourn for a time across the border he wrote:—"Situated as we still are with the Americans, it is with great reluctance I permit any officers to pass through their country, but I cannot allow that any of them 252 TORIES IN ARMS should go into the States for the purpose of remaining there upon a visit." • The Jacobites of Scotland, whose sufferings were in behalf of a far worse monarch than George the Third, have received more than their due at the hands of poet and novelist. A fresh field, no less harrowing incidents, and a like amount of devotion to a hopeless cause can be found in the Loyalist records of any state in the original thirteen. Men who escaped the hangman and skulked in the woods to see their wives and children banished from the homes they had laboured long to make for them; to know that their stock was driven off and their household goods put up at auction, their lands sold to strangers—not family estates as a rule but ground of which they had cleared every square yard by the sweat of their brows—men like these, non-combatants at the outset, came to Canada by hundreds and asked to be enlisted against the tyranny that had robbed them of their all. Some disguised as Indians went on scouting expeditions to familiar neighbourhoods, though certain to be hanged if caught. Sir Guy Carleton began the formation of a Loyalist corps and General Haldimand continued the enlistment, till in 1779, there were reported to be more men in these companies than in Washington's whole army. During the war no less than twenty-five thousand Tories took up arms for the maintenance of the British connection. 258 if!' m I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND A recital of the persecution endured by helpless women, children and old people, before their final expulsion to take up the long and toilsome trail to Canada, was enough to melt a heart of stone and General Haldimand's was not of that material. The abstracts of the archive reports bear witness to the number of petitions that poured in throughout his rule. For example:—"John Macdonnel, loyalist, 74 years of age, and his wife 67. Stating that he has nine sons, seven in the army, and two on the King's works. The persecutions he has suffered; being reduced to poverty from the losses he has sustained, prays for relief." (1781) "Mary Rogers, widow of a loyalist. Praying for subsistence, her husband having been hanged for his loyalty, by the rebels in 1777, she herself stripped of everything and obliged to fly for shelter to her relations. That not satisfied the rebels ordered her to leave the country." (1782) One of the governor's first labours was to succour those he found in the province on his arrival and to prepare for the reception of the multitude expected. Some were sheltered at Riviere du Loup, near Three Rivers, till a more permanent settlement could be formed at Machiche in the same neighbourhood under the direction of Conrad Gugy, a Swiss who had been Haldimand's secretary while he was governor at Three Rivers. Bedding, fuel, utensils and provisions were sent there from Quebec, and by December Gugy wrote that there was 254 J^. LAND ALLOTMENTS still room for forty in the houses he had put up at Machiche. Having full confidence in Haldimand's judgment, as well as his knowledge of the country, the British ministry left to him the distribution of the Loyalists, with the suggestion that the important district of Sorel be settled as soon as possible with old soldiers, in order to form a barrier at that entrance of the province. To ensure the district's being thickly populated, the lots were made small, only sixty acres, but each settler was to have a town lot in addition, as soon as a site was fixed upon, and the remainder of his allowance would be granted him either on the Chaleur Bay or at Cataraqui, now Kingston. The governor enforced the strictest impartiality in the bestowal of lands, and would not grant to officers the choice of front lots at Sorel, as they requested, but said they must take their chances in drawing, on an equality with the men. The allowance for all was sufficiently liberal—5,000 acres to a field officer, 8,000 apiece to the captains, 2,000 to subalterns, 200 to each non-commissioned officer or private, with an extra grant of fifty acres more for his wife and each child. Arrived at the age of twenty-one, every son or daughter of a Loyalist was given 200 acres in addition. Military settlers were numerous, through the disbanding at the peace of such regiments as the Royal Highland Emigrants (84th) the King's Royal Regiment of New York 255 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND and Butler's Rangers. The last named took up land along the Niagara frontier, rwhere, in 1784, there were over seven hundred acres cleared by less than fifty settlers. At Sorel had been made the earliest efforts for the propagation of the Protestant religion in Canada, but the cause did not advance under the ministrations of "the irreverend Mr. Scott," as a contemporary calls him. This gentleman acted as chaplain to the 34th Regiment, but proved a constant source of annoyance to its colonel, Barry St. Leger, of whom he made so many unjust complaints to the commander-in-chief that he was told that no more such scurrilous epistles would be received, and he was forbidden to exercise the functions of a clergyman in the province. His successor (1782), the Rev. John Doty, was to have lodgings in the barracks, and he asked also for the use of a government building in which to hold services, as the French church had hitherto been used for Protestant worship. As usual the native tribes were not consulted in the peace negotiations between two white races, and the commander at Niagara reported how the tidings of them were received:—"The Indians, from the surmises they have heard of the boundaries, look upon our conduct to them as treacherous and cruel; they told me they would never believe that our King could pretend to cede to America what was not his own to give, or that the Americans 256 JL THE INDIAN CLAIMS would accept from him what he had no right to grant. They added that many years ago their ancestors had granted permission to the French King to build trading-houses or small forts on the water communication between Canada and the Western Indians, in the heart of their country, for the convenience of trade only, without granting one inch of land but what the forts stood upon, and that at the end of the last war they granted leave to Sir William Johnson to hold these forts for their ally, the King of England, but it was impossible from that circumstance only to imagine that the King of England should pretend to grant to the Americans the whole country of the Indians lying between the Lakes and the fixed boundaries as settled in 1768, between the colonies and the Indians, or that any part of it could be claimed by the Americans or granted by the English to them. . . . They would not be the aggressors, but they would defend their own just rights, or perish in the attempt to the last man; they were but a handful of small people, but they would die like men, which they thought preferable to misery and distress if deprived of their hunting grounds." General Schuyler, it seemed, had been threatening the Six Nations, and it took all Haldimand's diplomancy to keep them from reprisals. He told the Indians it was as much to the interest of the Americans as to their own to five at peace, whatever they might say. The Six Nations thought 257 I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND he should take up their quarrel with the United States, but this, of course, he could not do, though he promised lands under his own rule to all who chose to emigrate. So from the banks of the Ohio and the Wabash, from the shores of the lakes in New York State, called by the tribal names, came other mournful bands of exiles to begin the population of what is now the province of Ontario. They settled first at Cataraqui, but it was considered wiser to send them further west where there were no white men, and where they could make alliances with other native tribes and possess their hunting grounds in peace. By the advice of Joseph Brant a district twenty miles from the head of Lake Ontario was fixed upon and the deed of gift was issued:—"The said Mohawk nation and such of the Six Nations as wish to settle in that quarter, to take possession of and settle upon the banks of the river commonly called the Ouse or Grand River, running into Lake Erie, allotting to them for that purpose six miles deep from each side of the river, beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of said river." (Oct. 25th, 1784.) In all his dealings with the Indians, Haldimand was a worthy representative of the government that has never permitted its subjects to impose upon them. Land was wanted for the Loyalists upon which the St. Regis Indians thought they had a claim. While the governor did not agree with them, he ordered it to be recognized, and £1,500 was 258 1 VISIT OF BARON STEUBEN paid to the Mohawks to satisfy their demands, though it was characteristic of His Excellency to bind them down not to tell what they had received lest other Indians should put in similar claims. He believed in keeping his left hand in ignorance of what his right hand was doing— from economical motives. The commander at Michillimakinak talked of appropriating a certain large district for the Loyalists, but was told that his chief did not approve "of making encroachments upon the interests of the Indians in their lands, so much the practice of the Americans, and so alarming to the Indians." Knowing what Pontiac had done after the last war, he was most unwilling to unsettle the savages by giving up the frontier posts until there seemed some likelihood of amity between the Indians and their new masters. When the Baron Steuben came as ambassador from congress to demand the surrender of the western forts, he met the general at Sorel, where he was sojourning at the government cottage he had built as a summer retreat. Haldimand had written to Lord North from Quebec, August 6th, 1788:—"I will leave this place to-day as I think it best that Major-General de Steuben should not come further than Sorel— and should have as little opportunity as possible of making observations in this country where there are so many people from a variety of reasons dissatisfied with the Provisional Treaty." 259 IJi: II': SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND mm The baron went away duly impressed with the general's courtesy but also with his determination not to yield the posts without special instructions from his government, which so far had ordered merely a cessation of hostilities. Haldimand advised the ministry to grant nothing further until congress upon its side showed some disposition to have the articles of the Treaty relating to the Loyalists fulfilled. Not yet had there been any slackening in their persecution, nor were there evidences of a disposition to restore their confiscated estates or to do them any manner of justice. Haldimand wrote Major de Peyster that Niagara, Detroit and Michillimakinak were to be defended at all costs, and if necessary reinforcements should be sent to Oswego, since holding the posts meant holding the Indians. " Whatever the result, it is our duty to persist in our endeavours to conciliate their minds and prevent a return of the calamities of war, in which I hope the Americans will be equally studious, when the violence of party has a little subsided." The general had another argument for refusing to yield possession of the upper posts—they were absolutely necessary to the protection and maintenance of the fur trade. Of Canada as a commercial country he had no great opinion, and counselled Great Britain against too large an outlay in her defence. The northern situation and the unprogressive French population would work against her value as 260 THE NORTH WEST COMPANY an English colony, and the influx of Loyalists who would not blend with the Canadians might only lead to future complications with the United States. There was only one paying business in Canada, and that was the fiir trade. To protect this was the governor's object, not to make money out of it himself, as so many of the French rulers had done. With the Hudson's Bay Company he had nothing to do, its headquarters being in England and the scene of its labours being reached by the vast inland sea from which it took its name, but during the winter of 1783-4 a rival company was started by Montreal merchants, and to them Haldimand felt bound to give every assistance in his power. The North West Company they called themselves, and they became the merchant princes of the time, carrying on a trade of mighty consequence both to Canada and the mother country. Suspecting that the boundary line between Canada and the States would run directly through their canoe route by the Rainy lake and river to Lake Winnipeg, Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher on behalf of the company proposed attempting the discovery of a new passage entirely in Canadian territory; and they petitioned the governor for an exclusive right to the use of such, if discovered, for at least ten years, during which time passes to the Grand Portage at Lake Superior should be refused. Haldimand was unable to grant their request, but he did better in advising " that at present 261 1 SHI 11||]! SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND it would be most prudent not to express any doubt respecting the boundary line, or to propose a survey of it, for whenever that happens it must be a mutual business and will give the Americans an opportunity of acquiring an equal knowledge with us of the advantage of the fur trade, of which they are at present but ill-informed." He quietly gave instructions to the commander at MichilHmakinak to have surveys made and a new post within the Canadian lines selected in case he should be obliged to move from the present one. Point aux Pins was one of the places suggested and Thessalon another, whereat the 84th would have been pleased to take up land. Eventually the gov ernor's diplomacy prevailed and the upper posts were not surrendered till 1796.1 The North West Company was allowed to build a small vessel at Detroit for use upon Lake Superior, but other private craft upon the lakes were for- 1 Private diary of General Haldimand, London, May 31st, 1790,— (< Was at Mr. Grenville's office at noon. He asked if I believed that by giving over the posts in Canada the Indians would lose mm \, and if by fortifying posts opposite them that trade might be secured, He wished in giving up the posts that a communication with the Mississippi might be obtained from the Americans. I told him that with respect to the trade a part would certainly be lost, but that this loss would perhaps be made up by the goods that our merchants would sell to the Americans, and further, I believed that if the Americans insisted on having the posts a merit should be made of giving them up; that if determined to have them, they were so numerous they could take them when they thought proper; that I did not believe Great Britain would undertake a war to defend them. I showed him what posts it would be proper || take to form a communication, etc. He asked me to put in writing nr ideas on the subject." 262 PROGRESS OF THE LOYALISTS bidden, in order to prevent the smuggling of furs into the States. All merchandise must be transported in the king's vessels. The Nor'Westers were active in the establish ment of a route between Lakes Ontario and Huron by way of Lake Simcoe and the Toronto Portage. Extensive surveys were made for the benefit of Loyalists, in the same region as well as between the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, and in Nova Scotia, which at that time included New Brunswick. Thither came thousands of refugees—from the sea coasts of the States, even as far south as the Carolinas, exiles as worthy of pity as any Acadians, but as yet unidealized by a poet of world-wide reputation. A road through the forest to St. John was begun in 1783, and upon the shores of the Cha- leur Bay barracks and huts were pushed forward at a rate only possible for men " working for themselves in view of a pinching winter." A letter from Halifax, January 16th, 1784, describes the situation:—" The increasing population, building and improvements in Nova Scotia are really amazing. Large towns arise in 7 or 8 months that exceed Halifax in inhabitants. Shelburne on the harbour of Port Roseway has 9,000 people and more under roof, many in good houses. On St. John River, Carleton and the town opposite are still more populous. In the Bay of Fundy numerous towns are begun, Annapolis is rebuilt and augmented. The old settlements from Cape Sable 268 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND to Halifax are revived with new inhabitants, and from this place to the Eastern limits of the province all the harbours wear an aspect of business and inhabitancy." Roman Catholic settlers were not required to take the oath of supremacy, merely the oath of allegiance, but their number was small in comparison with the vast body of Protestants upon whose arrival the priests of Canada looked with alarm, fearing that the influence of their religion would be diminished. The habitants foresaw that the newcomers for whose reception they were forced to labour would not be long in calling for the repeal of the Quebec Act. Lord North was of the opinion that the district we now know as the Eastern Townships, lying between the St. Lawrence and the States, would be a suitable country for military settlers, but Haldimand thought differently, judging it imprudent to bring recent combatants to close quarters. He deemed it wiser to leave the region uncultivated for a time, and then to settle it with French Canadians who would serve as a buffer against the restless New England States. The upper country bordering upon Lake Ontario and the Ottawa was what he favoured for early settlements, predicting that it would in time " become a granary for the lower parts of Canada, where crops are precarious and liable to be engrossed by a few designing and interested traders." 264 WW- SUPPLYING THE LOYALISTS Forty miles of land were purchased from the Mississaugas on Lake Ontario, and Cataraqui was the chief settlement. A "medley of people " gathered there, Royal Highland Emigrants, Rangers, Hessians, besides settlers from every one of the thirteen States. A few of the Six Nations Indians could not be persuaded to follow the majority to the Grand River, as their chiefs chose to retain their importance by governing a smaller body upon the Bay of Quinte. The Reverend Mr. Stuart was asked to use his influence towards their removal, with the representation that union was strength, and he visited periodically the main Mohawk settlement to report upon the education of the Indian youth, for whom a schoolmaster was engaged at £25 a year. A church, grist and sawmills were put up at Cataraqui erelong, and the Loyalists, turned farmers perforce, were assisted by seed wheat which the government purchased for them in Vermont and also in the valley of the Mohawk. No other trade with the United States was allowed. Grindstones, axes, ploughs, hoes and other implements were brought from England for the settlers, who were fed and clothed at the expense of government for three years, or until able to support themselves, but some of them grumbled that they were not given stock also. How to meet the enormous expense incurred was a question that taxed to the utmost the energies of the governor-general. He wrote to Lord North for definite instructions as to 265 14 li SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the extent of the assistance to be given, but while awaiting an answer he could not let the people starve, and so took upon himself the responsibility of supplying their more pressing wants. Even when half rations were ordered, he continued the full measure at his own risk and was a little disappointed that the recipients were indifferent to his. sacrifices on their behalf. His liberality made still more urgent the necessity for economy in other directions, and he ordered a prompt decrease in the Indian presents which had been largely increased in quantity and quality during the war. Of the latter there is evidence in the fact of a silversmith in Quebec requesting that he should be allowed to supply the silver plate wanted for the Indians. Gifts might still be given to widows, orphans, men disabled in the service, or for any cause specially deserving, but a stop must be put to indiscriminate bestowal upon the greedy hordes who flocked to Montreal, merely for "frivolous purposes." The chiefs were of course alarmed at the diminution of presents which indicated a loss of their own importance, but Haldimand was another Frontenac in the firmness as well as the fairness of his dealings with them, and they knew it was of no use to protest. Several of the characters whose acquaintance we made through the Vermont affair reappear as Loyalists. Mr. Enos wants to settle two Canadian townships with well-to-do people who will need 266 DIFFICULTIES OF SETTLEMENT naught but the land, while the Rev. Mr. Cossitt writes on behalf of his parishioners who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and crave room in His Majesty's dominions only for the protection of his laws against the gathering storm of persecution likely to burst upon their heads. Captain Sherwood is one of the many who hope that Haldimand will not leave Canada till affairs are in a more settled condition, since in him the Loyalists will lose their sole benefactor. He is of those who would fain settle near Missisquoi Bay, but the general refuses to break the rule for him, believing it to be "impossible that Dispositions so opposite from principle, aggravated by violent persecution and loss of property can be suddenly reconciled." The captain went off upon government surveys, but there were others less obedient who persisted in taking up their abode upon the boundaries, being urged thereto by circulars from interested parties, and when one lot after another had been banished, the governor decreed that the next settlers in the prohibited border-land should have their houses burned. Much has been written of the sufferings of the Loyalists, but who will say a word of the trouble they gave this benevolent governor-general, in bad health himself, wishing for his recall to England, but sticking to his post and never letting his personal ailments interfere with his attention to duty? He tried, as far as possible, to find out the 267 11 m % SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND previous condition of this multitude of refugees thrust upon him in so short a space, and adapted his relief accordingly. A list was made of the young women, as well as the young men, accustomed to earn their living by manual labour, and the former were given washing to do for the volunteers "at four coppers a shirt and other things in proportion." Coloured people who came from the colonies had to be specially protected, as they ran the risk of being sold for slaves in Montreal, and so confused and crowded was the manner of arrival of most of the Loyalists that it was found necessary to prevent imposition by deferring the distribution of clothing until a general muster could be arranged. "Everyone pretends to supreme command," wrote one of the distracted commissioners, who had his hands full in dealing with all sorts and conditions of men. Haldimand said himself on this subject: "The true spirit of a refugee loyalist, driven from his country by persecution is to carry arms, but there is no end to it if every man that comes in is to be considered and paid as an officer." 1 Some are loyal from principle; many from interest, many from resentment," was General Howe's estimate of the Tories, and these distinctions remained among them after their emigration. Besides emigrants eminently desirable, there was a proportion of undesirable ones—land-jobbers who sold their lots and went back into the States with the money; idle fellows, who had done no good there 268 LOYALISTS AND LOYALISTS and hoped to live at the expense of the British government; sick people who brought smallpox and measles with them and made an outcry at the closing of the Sorel hospital after they were cured. The doctors had pronounced against the herding together of smallpox patients who could enjoy the luxury of inoculation at their own homes, and the continued complaints from the new subjects were said to arise "chiefly from a want of Brotherly love among themselves." Haldimand found that the best way to settle disputes in his troublesome family was to stop the supply of provisions, or to issue rations of salt beef to the ringleaders. Some who did not find Canada all they expected, hearing that the enmity against the Tories was relaxing, wanted to return to the States, and the governor told his officers to wink at their departure, since the country was better without them if they did not wish to stay. Others had a rage for recruiting over the border which had to be discouraged, and some went off land-hunting on their own account, leaving wives and children to be fed in their absence. It grew necessary to insist upon families travelling in company to enforce an early settlement, even though husbands and fathers should make complaint that they had not seen the lands they were to occupy. Among the multitudinous prayers for assistance Haldimand received, it is unusual to find one like that of Hugh Monro, who asks for employment, as 269 li! SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND he is ashamed to receive help and do nothing in return. Thus struggling against land monopolists; against settlers within the American lines who contrived to draw rations in Canada; against grumblers who persisted in demanding tools that could not be given to all; against ill-disposed persons who filled the minds of the more credulous with the idea that they were to be enslaved in Canada, and that injustice presided over the distribution of lands and provisions, the governor proceeded with his benevolent duty of finding homes for the outcasts. To control the labour and expense involved in making surveys and transporting settlers into an unbroken wilderness required executive ability of no mean order. The circumstances of the Loyalists were hard enough, but how much worse they would have been had there been a less able and resolute governor to relieve them. His generosity in caring for them on their arrival, the good judgment he displayed in fixing upon their location, bore fruit not in his time but long afterwards. If Haldimand had acted differently in the crisis, Upper Canada would not have been made a strong British province, able to defy not only absorption into French Canada, but the invasion of her southern neighbours in 1812. With a weaker man at the helm, one who would have yielded to the exactions of some of the Loyalists, there would have been confusion worse confounded. He controlled them 270 RESULTS OF HIS POLICY and he controlled his own agents so that everything was done decently and in order, without serious friction either between the newcomers and the French Canadians or between Loyalists and the dwellers in the land they had left In so far as the first settlers partook of his thrift and his tireless patience in overcoming difficulties, are they worthy to be classed with Haldimand, the founder of Ontario. 271 CHAPTER XIV HIS EXCELLENCY'S ENEMIES THE man who is a strong partisan will be defended by those of his own way of thinking unto the third and fourth generations, but he who tries to do justice to both sides is almost certain to be abused by both and by their children's children. This has been Haldimand's fate and it rests with the disinterested student of history to search for the cause of his unpopularity. Undoubtedly he never sought public favour; to the king and his ministers he owed an account of his stewardship and them alone he sought to please. What the masses, the ignorant people he was sent to govern, thought of his measures in their behalf was of but little consequence to General Frederick Haldimand. He knew better than they did themselves what was good for them, and by his interpretation of the Quebec Act he was enabled to play the part of an amiable despot. His hardest task was not the repulsion of actual rebel attacks upon the frontiers, but the discovery and suppression of the subtle means employed to undermine the allegiance of the French Canadians. A few natives of old France were the arch-plotters, and the lengthy imprisonment of several of these 273 m li il SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND was the chief cause of the outcry against Haldimand's administration upon which the changes have been rung even unto our own day. ('The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones." One of the governor's fiercest foes was a certain seignior who objected to the cutting of wood for the Sorel garrison upon his property, though well paid for it, and likewise to the building of a bridge over the river Berthier since it put his profitable ferry out of service. The modern French Canadian idea of Haldimand is that of a stern-faced gaoler turning the key upon hundreds of innocent persons to whom he has refused the reasonable satisfaction of knowing the cause of their incarceration. As a matter of fact, he imprisoned nineteen persons for reasons of state and some of these were detained but a few days. From a letter to Brigadier de Speth it appears that His Excellency was by no means anxious to add to their number:—"I am favoured with your letter of the 19th inst., reporting the taking into custody of the 5 suspected inhabitants of Montreal, agreeably to my desire and likewise the 4 Canadians upon information of the rebel Captain Vroman—as this is done it becomes more necessary that Vroman should be particularly circumstantial in his charges against them, otherwise we shall have our prisons filled upon trifling suspicions or from private pique. The liberty of the subject being by our laws very sacred it is neces- 274 REBEL SYMPATHISERS sary that suspicion should be well founded to justify imprisonment. Except in cases where the service shall require immediate decision it will be necessary in future that you wait for my particular directions as civil governor to apprehend any subject for state crimes." "But he suspended the Habeas Corpus Act," cry his detractors. He could not suspend that which was not in operation during his regime, though he took measures for its establishment before he left the country. In any case the laws that hold good in time of peace are frequently upset in war-time, and Lord Germaine had written Haldimand that it was not in his power, as governor of Quebec, to pardon treason. It is greatly to the general's credit that he did not follow military methods nor condemn a single person to death. If but from economic motives, he was averse to having more captives than he could accommodate. Every gaol in the province was so frill of prisoners of war that numbers were allowed at large on parole which many broke and escaped to their own country. This they could not have done without help from the habitants, but Haldimand was never hard upon the humbler sympathisers with congress, not even upon the good wives of Ste. Th^rese who had supplied food to the rebel scouts. They were dismissed with a warning. The governor was informed that His Majesty was loath to have suspects imprisoned, being 275 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND desirous of giving proof of his conciliatory disposition, but Haldimand was to use his own judgment in the matter, which told him to secure the ringleaders at any cost. There was Fleury Mesplet, for example, proprietor of the first printing press in Montreal, and the publisher of its first books, a couple of religious works in French. He had come in 1776 from Philadelphia, where two years before he had had the printing and translating of the address of congress to the Canadians, and he was chosen to accompany the commissioners sent to Montreal to confer with General Arnold after the failure of his attack upon Quebec. One of their plans was to start a French newspaper under the direction of Mesplet, but the time was unpropitious and when the rebel army withdrew from Montreal only the printer remained. He began business in the custom house square, St. Paul street, and was the originator of the Montreal Gazette, issued every Wednesday on and after June 3rd, 1778, at the rate of ten coppers weekly or two and a half Spanish dollars a year. The first volume was in French and English, a harmless production according to the prospectus:—"I propose to fill a sheet with publick advertisements and other affairs, immediately concerning trade and commerce, to which will be added some diversified pieces of Literature. I dare flatter myself, as I hope, Gentlemen, you will encourage this, my feeble beginning, that you will in a short time see with satisfaction not only a 276 FLEURY MESPLET great variety of Notices and Advertisements but also a collection of facts both entertaining and instructive. I will endeavour to procure a choice collection of the Newest Pieces, and I don't doubt but this will stir up the genius of many who have remained in a state of inaction, or could not communicate their productions without the help of the Press. I will insert in the above Paper, or Gazette, everything that one or more gentlemen will be pleased to communicate to me, provided always no mention be made of Religion, Government, or News concerning the present affairs, unless I was authorized from Government for so doing, my intention being only to confine myself in what concerns Advertisements, Commercial and Literary affairs." M. Mesplet and his editor, M. Jotard, did not succeed in adhering to these admirable resolutions, but sent forth a scurrilous sheet called Tant pis, tant mieucc, the first French journal published in America, " defaming all the King's officers and trying to throw the colony into confusion." They were arrested and ultimately banished for presuming, as Dr. Laterrifere puts it, to criticize the sage policy of the English government and the despotism of the " cruel, hard and wicked Swiss." M. Laterriere was no friend of theirs, but he surpassed them in hatred of "the inhuman," "the infernal" General Haldimand who had the effrontery to imprison a gentleman of France like himself. What if pickaxes, petards and cannon-balls from 277 is ill 1 III! Ill SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the St. Maurice forges had found their way into the hands of the late rebel party besieging Quebec —was he, the inspector, to blame? It could not be proved of him that he had ever encouraged the desertion of Canadians, or made preparation for the reception of an invading army, though his instincts were all emancipating and hospitable. In short, a more innocent, much-wronged, and withal clever and light-hearted character never left behind him romantic fiction under the title of Les Memoires de Pierre de Sales Laterriere et de ses traverses. Another of the same profession, in every sense, Surgeon Pillon, practised treason as well as physic in the Quebec suburbs of Montreal, where he held unlawful consultations with rebel emissaries. Haldimand had full proof of his correspondence with Washington and Lafayette for some time but postponed his arrest in the hope of discovering his accomplices. At length in September, 1780, the governor gave orders that Pillon should be seized at daybreak as quietly as possible and sent in irons to Quebec in the hold of a provision ship. Among his papers was found ample evidence of the promises he had made the rebel leaders to secure provisions for their army in case of an invasion, as well as to join them immediately with thirty-eight men, a number, he said, likely to be increased enormously, as three- fourths of the province were in favour of congress. Another gentleman of France put out of the way of mischief for a time was Francois Cazeau, a man 278 11 CAZEAU AND HAY of means with many friends whose seizure was to be given at least the appearance of legality. He was known to be in correspondence with General Schuyler and to have been instrumental in perverting the Indians. Charles Hay, a prominent Scot, was a Quebec member of the same clique, but he was blessed with a devoted and intelligent wife who "crossed the ocean to plead for him," presenting a lengthy memorial to the secretary of state for the colonies in February, 1782. Her husband, she said, was a cooper in the timber trade, dealing also in wine and rum, spending his whole time in " Trade and Industry, an employment very different from the Machinations of Treason or Plots against the State." Two years had he been in prison without a trial and without being told for what he was held, as "his enemies have fatally made a deep impression on General Haldimand who continues as unrelenting as ever." The lady's remonstrances moved Lord Shelburne to request an explanation from the governor, who replied with the satisfactory evidence he had for locking up, not Hay alone, but the wealthiest and wiliest of the confederates, M. Pierre Du Calvet. Haldimand had been slightly chagrined that Brigadier MacLean, acting upon information obtained in Pillon's papers, had been so precipitate in his arrest of the last-named gentleman, as it rendered fruitless "any inquiry which I might have thought proper to have made into his conduct at 279 ow ■ §1 t 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Quebec and into the motives of his journey," which, according to Major Carleton, had been undertaken for the purpose of obtaining plans of the new fortifications. M. Du Calvet was stopped at Three Rivers by ah officer sent after him by MacLean, the Montreal commander acting on his own responsibility, as he judged that in so doing he was "erring on the right side," since Du Calvet would escape over the border as soon as he heard that Pillon's papers were secured. "Many people in Canada," the governor wrote to the minister, "are attached both to France and the revolted Colonies. I have contented myself with diligently preventing Effects of their bad Example and bad designs, and pretending ignorance of them, but on these two occasions the circumstances were too public for me not to interfere and to use authority." These men had sown in the minds of the people hopes of an invasion. "I hope the Whole Conduct and Tenor of my Life frees me from a Suspicion of Cruelty or Persecution, and be assured, my Lord, that I wait with Impatience for that Moment when it will be in my Power to release them, for notwithstanding the Injurious Misrepresentations contained in their Complaints, I never had, nor can have, the least Personal Animosity against them. I have only to add that Messrs. Hay and Du Calvet are both mentioned in the List of enemies of the King's Government and Adherents of the Rebels which Sir Henry Clinton sent me from New York." Sir 280 DU CALVET'S ACTIONS Henry's informant was no less a person than Benedict Arnold, to whose sins need not be added the crime of plotting against the liberty of Frenchmen in Canada, who were nothing to him. Another witness testified to having heard Du Calvet send a message to the rebels concerning the amount of wheat and flour he had in store for their advancing army. He had supplied the troops that held Montreal in 1775, and boasted in after years that he was the only creditor congress ever paid. Written proof of his designs was also forthcoming. Besides his commission as ensign in the Canadian regiment to be commanded by Colonel Moss Hazon in 1776, there was " Intelligence wrote in Milk in the intermediate Spaces between the lines of a french Song," which witnesses on oath swore originated with Du Calvet. One of his emissaries was captured while on the way to the colonies, and upon being brought before Major Carleton he agreed to tell all he knew if he were set free and not betrayed to his employers. The promise given, he confessed that he had thrown away in the woods the walking stick containing his despatches, and on being taken to the spot where he was arrested the same was found. The major cut into the stick far enough to discover that there really were papers within, released the emissary, who swore that- he was employed by M. Du Calvet, and sent the walking stick just as it was to the governor-general An eye-witness has 281 11 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Wm I fit! described His Excellency's examination of the letters hidden in the hollow of the stick, and his remark that unfortunately for himself, M. Du Calvet had signed his own death warrant. But he was not hanged, nor did the general make public the condemning evidence he had received, probably from a nice sense of honour regarding the promise given to the man who had put it into his possession. He even directed that his prisoner's proposal to sell Indian goods to the government should be accepted, if his terms were fair, since he did not wish him to suffer financially "from his present unavoidable situation." Unavoidable it was in the estimation of the governor, who being morally certain of the man's guilt was unwilling to bring him to trial until the agents he had employed to collect evidence had found sufficient to convict him, for an acquittal would have given enormous encouragement to rebel sympathisers. Du Calvet, a man of violent passions, totally unrestrained, would never credit the possibility of anyone having positive proof against him and not producing it. From different sources can be gleaned instances of his vindictiveness and untruthfulness, yet it is mainly upon his testimony that the slur has been cast upon Haldimand's character and administration. If these men were set at liberty, His Excellency was confident he would soon have to confine many others. He judged that he had secured the ringleaders and broken the 2fc2 1*21 DU CALVET RELEASED chain of rebel correspondence, from the fact that intercourse was less frequent and the minds of the people not so often alarmed by reports of invasion by rebel fleets and armies. The Canadians were giving their assistance with less reluctance in the services he had a right to require from them, but the disaffected would become insolent and even criminal were the prisoners set free. The governor released them at the earliest peace negotiations, before he received instructions from the ministry, and M. Du Calvet at once repaired to England to enter a lawsuit against His Excellency for false imprisonment. The book that he published in French and in English affords an admirable opportunity for the public to estimate the plaintiff's pugnacity, also his lack of veracity. He contradicts himself in his tale of the motives that brought him to America in the first place, nor will history endorse some of his statements concerning his early adventures. The man was hypnotized from having gazed too long at the unimpeachable brightness of his oppressor's character, and for the rest of his life could see nothing but his own wrongs magnified out of all proportion to the reality by brooding upon them while in confinement. Without a doubt he believed in himself and in the righteousness of his cause, else he could not have gone the lengths that he did; but egotism, • lashed by passion, often amounts to insanity, though not so called in the eighteenth century. His attacks 283 I Bra SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND li L upon the public men of Canada had made him notorious for more than twenty years, and yet he can dictate to his translator:—"Still it will be asked, perhaps, how such a man as Mr. Du Calvet has been here represented could ever have any enemies? The answer to this question is 'That uncommon honesty and uprightness, accompanied with a freedom of speech in declaring one's sentiments of publick men and measures, though without the smallest mixture of the love of satire and calumny, are often the causes of envy, jealousy, and aversion in men of different character, and more especially of persons in office and of high station.' And this seems to have been the cause that made Mr. Du Calvet obnoxious to some persons of power in Canada." This sounds strange after the evidence he has just been giving of his readiness to take offence where the impartial reader cannot but suspect that none was intended. General Haldimand he calls a weathercock for the capriciousness of his behaviour to himself and others. The governor had been on the point of setting him at liberty after three months' imprisonment, but he took offence at the freedom of tone in an expostulatory letter which Du Calvet had written him "in the agony of his soul and the consciousness of his perfect innocence." ► The justification which Laterriere pronounces "tres superieurement racontd" is thus epitomized:— "To The Right Honourable Lord Sydney, His 284 jwm DU CALVET'S MEMORIAL Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department:—The memorial of Peter Du- Calvet, Esquire, of Montreal, in the Province of Quebeck, humbly sheweth, That your Memorialist has been settled in the province of Quebeck formerly called Canada, ever since the year 1758, and that some time after the peace in 1763, he sold his patrimonial estate in the south of France, in order to carry over the produce thereof into the said province, and enjoy the benefits of the British Government, as it was there established by the King's proclamation of October, 1763, and the commission to Governour Murray made in pursuance of it:—That he executed the office of a Justice of Peace in the said province with the fairest reputation and the entire approbation of the govern ours of the province, from the year 1766 to the year 1775:—That he has always acted as a faithful and loyal subject to His Majesty, and during the late war with the revolted provinces in North America (now acknowledged by Great Britain as the Thirteen United States in North America), he always avoided entering into the smallest connection or correspondence with any persons in the said provinces, or in any degree or manner abetting their revolt.... But that, nevertheless, he was arrested on the 27th day of September, 1780, by Captain Lawes of the 84th regiment of foot, called 'the Royal Emigrants,' in consequence of a verbal order of Brigadier-General MacLeane 285 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND |i 1 and carried as a prisoner to Quebeck and there put on board the Canceaux sloop of war, as a prisoner, on the 29th of September, 1780, by a written order issued by General Haldimand, the governour of the province, but signed only by his private secretary, Captain Matthews.—That he was detained on board the Canceaux, as a prisoner in the harbour of Quebeck from the 29th of September to the 14th of November, 1780, and kept on salt provisions and musty biscuit without being permitted to send any person on shore to buy fresh provisions for him with his own money;—That then he was removed to the military prison of Quebeck, and detained there from the 14th day of November to the 13th day of December, 1780, in the custody of Miles Prenties, the Provost Martial of the army, in a very nasty room, which he was not permitted to cause to be cleaned at his own expense;—and that afterwards, from the 13th of December, 1780, to the 2nd of May, 1783, he was detained as a prisoner in the convent of the Re'collets Monks, with circumstances of great hardship and unnecessary severity, which have greatly impaired his health;—and that throughout this tedious' and unmerited confinement, he never had any charge or accusation brought against him, or could procure from General Haldimand a declaration of the cause of his imprisonment. "Your Memorialist further sets forth, That, during this long and severe imprisonment by General Haldimand's military power, he repeatedly desired 286 m HK1 «1 THE MEMORIAL CONTINUED to be dealt with as the law directed, by either being brought to a trial, if he was thought to have been guilty of any offence, or being set at liberty, either freely and absolutely, or at least upon giving security for his future good behaviour and to answer any charge that might be brought against him; and that Mr. L'Eveque, a very respectable merchant of Quebeck, and who is a member of the Legislative Council of the province, had offered General Haldimand to become bound for him in these respects; but all these proposals had been refused.—And that after the refusals of these proposals, he had offered to make over all his landed and other property in the province (which was considerable) to such persons or trustees, as General Haldimand should appoint, to be kept in the hands of such trustees until the end of the late unhappy war, as a security for his loyal and faithful conduct during the remainder of it; or, if that was not thought sufficient, he desired to be sent to England even as a prisoner rather than continue in the nasty and unwholesome confinement in which he was then kept: but that these proposals likewise were refused. "For this cruel and illegal imprisonment your Memorialist humbly hopes that the laws of England (under which he wishes to live and die) will give him such a reasonable compensation as can now be afforded him. For as to the damage done to his health by the hardships he has gone through, 287 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND that, he fears, can never be repaired. But as Gen- > eral Haldimand cannot be sued in the province of Quebeck, so long as he continues governour of it; his high office of govern^our placing him above the jurisdiction of the courts of the said province, he is likewise out of the reach of the courts of justice of Westminster Hall, whose jurisdiction does not extend beyond the island of Great Britain.—Your Memorialist humbly hopes that, in order to prevent a failure of justice arising from these circumstances, your Lordship will advise His Majesty to command General Haldimand to repair to England, with all convenient expedition, in order to answer such complaints before His Majesty's courts of justice here in England, as may be brought against him by your Memorialist and the many other persons who conceive themselves to have been oppressed and injured by him in his office of governour of the said province of Quebeck. "And your Memorialist, as in duty bound will ever pray for your Lordship's welfare and prosperity. . . . (signed) Peter Du Calvet." In opposition to this must be noted the statement of Captain Schank relative to his fare on board the Canceauoo, where according to the governor's express command he was treated as a gentleman, lodged in the same state-room His Excellency had occupied on board the same ship, slept on the captain's bedding, dined with the officers at their own table "and if he got salt meat, it must 288 «! HIS OPINION OF DU CALVET'S BOOK have been dressed on purpose for him at his own desire, as the whole ship's company had fresh meat twice a week." Captain Schank assured His Excellency that the prisoner "had fresh and corned meat, poultry, fish, pudding, etc., drank wine, spruce beer or grog." After a perusal of that unique production "The Case of Pierre Du Calvet" the captain remarked "it appears that Mr. Du Calvet just wrote what things came into his head to draw compassion from the world." Much more indignant was Father de Berey's denial of the charges against the Recollets of Quebec, which he sums up as a "compound of abusive lies, gross falsehoods, atrocious impostures and black calumnies, supported only by terms and expressions natural to a pupil of washerwomen and fishwives." Haldimand's criticism of the remarkable volume was, "the violence and abuse manifested in it will, I make no doubt,* prevent the malicious intention of publishing it from making any impression on Liberal minds or such persons as have had opportunity to be acquainted with the circumstances which gave rise to his confinement, but as the Majority of mankind is in neither of these predicaments " he sends his papers explaining his course of action, to be published. (July, 1784). The costs of the suit on Haldimand's side were borne by the British government, which thereby testified its approval of his procedure, while Du 289 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Pflf \mw Calvet found an influential supporter in the Baron Francis Maseres, his co-religionist, who had been attorney-general of Quebec province in Carleton's time, and figured as a Protestant opponent of the Quebec Act. But the Canadian plaintiff wore out all his friends, even the dissolute ex-Jesuit, Pierre Roubaud, whose career would interest the seeker for curios. He had been a thorn in the flesh to Haldimand during his military rule at Three Rivers, but was seen some years afterwards by General Gage at an English race meeting, clad in a blue frock coat with embroidered buttons. He held the position of preceptor to a young gentleman of family, for whose morals the governor trembled. The unworthy father turned Protestant, married, went on the stage and directed abilities of no mean order to playing the spy upon friend and foe alike— such was the "facility of his disposition." His estimate of Du Calvet displays both insight and moderation. Crediting him with "a restless, shuffling disposition," he yet believed that his covetousness and fear of losing his property had been sufficient to keep him from any outward act of disloyalty to the British government, though undoubtedly disaffected and "of the most vindictive nature, which knows not of any forgiveness, and once provoked he follows his revenge night and day, spares no pain, searches and precautions." General Haldimand discovered this to his cost, but he would hardly have credited it had he been 290 I DU CALVET AS A PATRIOT told that for more than a hundred years what this man had said in his wrath would colour the statements of reputable historians regarding himself. Du Calvet posed as a patriot when he found that his personal grievances did not meet with merited attention in London, and he employed an agent at Beauport to try to get certificates from the habitants that they had not been paid for their corvies. Messrs. Powell, Adhe'mar and Delisle were sent as ambassadors to London to plead for Canadian reforms, but M. Bibaud says that they being only "simple citizens" failed to get a hearing from anybody but Baron Maseres. M. Du Calvet made a louder outcry than them all for a legislative assembly, for the extension of the Habeas Corpus to Canada, for trial by jury, for the liberty of the press, the permanency of judges and councillors, and other reforms that came to pass naturally in the course of a few years after the end of the war. Haldimand held the country at the most trying and critical period of its existence, and even the French historians grudgingly admit that " to him were due the first modifications of British policy in favour of the Canadians " (Garneau); that he supported the authority of the church (TStu); that several of the ordinances passed under his administration advanced the commerce and agriculture of the country (Bibaud) ; that he acted with rigour against the French, not the Canadians, but should have proclaimed the Habeas Corpus, and even in 291 1 4» i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND time of trouble should not have imprisoned without the consent of his council (Suite). None of these doubt the sincerity and disinterestedness of the governor's intentions; they merely find fault with his judgment, which the ministry that employed him considered excellent. In another hundred years posterity will probably concur in that opinion. It is a thousand pities that Du Calvet, who came out to Canada again, presumably to collect evidence for his case, was drowned at sea on the voyage from New York to London, for the general had his papers ready for him, and the whole truth must have come out at the trial. Haldimand was proud to defend the country, but too proud to defend himself, while Du Calvet's dramatic end to a dramatic career stimulated the imagination of French Canadians, even of M. Louis Frechette, who penned the lengthy lines beginning, " Personne rta connu ta tombe, 6 Du Calvet!" The gentleman is hailed as a hero and a martyr, the founder of latter day Canadian liberty, while the governor-general must needs content himself with the scant justice of F. X. Garneau, the historian:— "Now that we retrospectively view Haldimand's leaden tyranny without prejudice, now that we discern what was his master thought, few of us perhaps will refuse to pardon him for his rough but honest absolutism, out of regard for his efforts to preserve intact a portion of the soil reclaimed by aliens, which had been gained to civilization by our ancestors." 292 CHAPTER XV HIS FRIENDS THE general did not preserve his official correspondence with the idea of setting himself right with posterity. It would never occur to him that such justification might be necessary, and all the more valuable, therefore, is the evidence scattered throughout the mass of papers he left behind him, concerning what manner of man he was. These letters of thanks for personal kindness—from Sowers of the Engineers when shot through the head at Oswego; from the vicar at Three Rivers to whom His Excellency " is charmed to have found means to give pleasure and a little more ease"; from grateful fathers whose sons he has helped; from the religious communities as well as private individuals he has benefited; from the officers of the German legion in behalf of themselves and their troops, expressing "their unalterable and most heartfelt acknowledgments of His Excellency's constant goodness and generous kindness"— all these are not in accordance with Laterriere's picture of the avaricious, vindictive governor who loved to make humanity suffer. Pardons to condemned criminals, charges against hasty decisions, directions about giving to certain 293 ii SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND deserving widows or to old naval officers public money that he might justly have pocketed—instances abound in the correspondence both of his goodness of heart and soundness of judgment. In one of his reports to Lord Germaine he said:—" At the departure of Lieut.-Col. Maclean the command of his Battalion fell to a Captain Nairne, a very old officer, who distinguished himself very much at the Siege of Quebec, on which Account and to prevent the Mortification to him of being commanded by Majors of Provincials, I have given him the nominal rank of Major till further orders." The general's nephews caused him no little anxiety. Of the three who had come to America to be under his guardianship, Frederick, the first to arrive, was drowned in 1766, and Peter, who came out two years later, took charge of the Pabos estate. The young man did not succeed there, and in 1779 his uncle secured for him the post of Ranger of the Woods. He died the next year at Nicaragua, and the general asked that his place as Inspector might be given to his younger brother, Louis Haldimand, the lieutenant who had been in charge of Major Hutcheson at Boston, 1775. To his old friend Prevost, Haldimand wrote in 1780 that he was disappointed in his nephews and would spend no more on them. He thought of sending Louis back to Switzerland, since he was £700 in debt, besides what had been paid for him already. It was doubtless a great temptation to young men to live beyond 294 ^ COLONEL ST. LEGER their means when they had so generous an uncle at their backs, and the kin of the commander-in-chief would always get long credit. Besides the help given to his own relations, the general was ever found buying a commission for this one or that, or paying the debts of young men who had no claim upon him whatever—all for the good of the service. Colonel St. Leger knew his man when he wrote the following letter from Montreal, July 16th, 1788:—"I have the honour to request that your Excellency will add one more very essential favour to those you have already so kindly conferred upon my son. I make no doubt that since your connexion with the British army you have but too often observed and as often lamented the want of general and liberal education in our young officers, and I am sorry I am obliged to own not one in one hundred has the least suspicion of tactical information. Our Government not being of a Military turn there is no provision made for the attainment of the latter, and for the former— being whipped thro' the school of some pedagogue till we are tired of him and his instructions and at fourteen launched into the army, with all our ignorances upon our heads is the fate of most of us» I wish to do all in my power to prevent the young man whom your Excellency has so obligingly protected from being one of this number. In Canada there is no information of any kind to be procured, nor in England any suited to his walk of life; but 295 i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND on the contrary many vices to be learned, which for the sake of his reputation I hope he may never know. I have turned my thoughts to the new college of Brunswick under the immediate patronage of the Prince, whose institutions I am acquainted with, and which, to my knowledge, has fashioned in a wonderful manner some of our unlicked cubs, and am now to request your Excellency's indulgence of two years' absence from his duties to accomplish this most important point. . . . I will take the liberty so far to anticipate your Excellency's goodness as to bring him down myself before I can have your answer to this, least the Troops should be ordered to sail before the necessary previous equipments can be made for him." No doubt the lad went off rejoicing with the returning Germans, under the wing of Brigadier de Speth, who had agreed "to set him down at Brunswick." His Excellency accepted the invitation to stand as sponsor to Lady Johnson's infant, and he stood in the same relationship to America Riedesel. When he meets with an accident to his leg, anxious enquiries stamped with sincerity proceed from high and low, from General Riedesel, stationed at Sorel, to the Widow Duffy or Du Foy of Montreal, who regrets the failure of her orchard, and her consequent inability to supply His Excellency with apples, but sends him a box of ginseng, that infallible barrier against fatigue and old age. 296 BARON DE RIEDESEL The Baron de Riedesel was twenty years younger than Haldimand, but there was great sympathy between them as foreign servants of Great Britain, and as men of sterling character with the same high sense of duty. Their correspondence has more of the friendly and less of the purely official tone than the bulk of that which has been preserved; they exchanged visits, newspapers, young fruit-trees, garden seeds, and ideas with equal facility. Current events in Europe as well as in America are discussed in their letters. Riedesel congratulates Haldimand upon Rodney's victory, and condoles with him upon the humiliating character of the royal message granting American independence after so great an expenditure in men and money, but "Destiny favours the Revolt." The governor appreciates the baron's "heartiness" in his work, and says that though the defeat of Cornwallis is a crushing blow, they two must not lose hope, but preserve, if possible, the country committed to their care. Their next effort in that direction was the discovery and suppression of the placards distributed among the Canadians after the Yorktown disaster, advising their adherence to the winning side. Riedesel had strong block-houses of logs put up in different places for the interception of rebel spies; and suspected inhabitants of the country were closely watched by privates and non-coms, of the army. Haldimand had lists of the people made, with each man's political leanings inserted after his name, but 297 j i I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND he warned Riedesel not to make arrests except upon well-founded suspicions, as the prisons were full. Riedesel thinks the outlook for Canada is very discouraging, but "the military arrangements made by His Excellency will cost the enemy dear." The utmost watchfulness is necessary, since it has been his experience that "the spot neglected by Washington is the one he means to attack." On the boundary decisions the baron says the English have given the Americans more than they really asked for, and he thinks it a great pity that the former have not such good geographers as Dr. Franklin, for instance, who is well aware of the boundaries that will best serve the colonies. In his memoirs, Riedesel says that Haldimand had but little intercourse with the inhabitants of Quebec, living mostly in the company of his officers; and another of the German legion corroborates this with the remark that His Excellency was not fond of state functions, but enjoyed a good dinner and liked to smoke a pipe with a friend. A third considers him one of the most deserving officers he has ever met, and, indeed, whatever his political opponents have had to say about the general, not one has a stone to throw at his private life, which they would have been only too ready to fling had there been occasion. His simplicity put them all to shame. It must have been an agreeable change for the governor to sojourn for a time at Sorel, where he 298 THE RIEDESEL FAMILY had exerted himself to provide more comfortable quarters for the Riedesel family. Madame furnished a room specially for him in her new chateau. He was godfather to another little daughter, Louise Augusta Elizabeth Canada, who died before she was a year old. The baroness herself had to undergo a serious operation, which one shudders to think upon in those days preceding anesthetics. But the brave little lady recovered, and through her diary we can draw more closely to Haldimand than he allows us elsewhere. Somewhat morose, her husband acknowledged that he was, but his dejection was doubtless due to ill health, since he "was often troubled with the stone, from which at times he suffered intensely." "If I was very sick," he said to Riedesel, "and needed assistance in the service of the King, you may, dear sir, rest assured that you would be the first officer on whom I would calL" The baroness describes their first meeting:—"Several persons endeavoured to make us distrustful of him, but instead of listening to such insinuations we behaved toward him with openness and frankness, and this pleased him so much the more as he rarely met with such behaviour. The governor's house, which had been like a barrack, was now furnished in the English style, and though General Haldimand had been in Quebec but five years, his gardens were already frill of fruit trees and exotic plants, which it would have been impossible to preserve in that climate had he not judiciously 299 11 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND chosen for them a place where they had the benefit of a southern exposure. The house was seated on an eminence, and quite on its summit. . . . The deficiencies of our social pleasures were in some measure compensated by the invitations we received from General Haldimand during both winters we spent in Canada to pass some time in Quebec, where we remained at each time 6 weeks at the house of Dr. Mabane, one of the General's intimate friends, but always dined with the General. The General spent the evenings at our house, played at cards, and often remained until 10 o'clock; but he had from the beginning begged me to retire whenever it was convenient to myself. I never saw a man who was so kind and obliging to his friends, in the number of which he soon included us. The next spring he invited us to meet him at Montreal, whither his duties called him, and he assured us upon that occasion, that he never spent his time more agreeably than in our society." The lady speaks of supplying His Excellency with vegetables from her garden, and of being proud to have shown him, as well as other Canadian friends, how to pickle cucumbers. She had the pleasure of meeting Joseph Brant at the table of the governor, by whom he was highly esteemed. Her own descriptions need no condensation:— "We spent some weeks, during the summer of 1782, very agreeably at Quebec. A house had been built for General Haldimand upon the top of a hill 300 MONTMORENCY HOUSE which he called Montmorency House, after the famous fall of that name. He invited us to pay him a visit in this his favourite residence, which, indeed, was most charmingly situated. The river precipitates itself from a height of one hundred and 63 feet with a terrible noise, into a chasm between two mountains. When we first went to see that sublime scene I happened to say to the General that it must be delightful to have a little dwelling opposite to it. Three weeks afterwards we accompanied him thither a 2nd time, and after having climbed up the steep ascent and the detached rocks, which were connected by small bridges and which reminded me of some descriptions of Chinese gardens, we at last reached the top, where the General begged my hand to show me into a small house which was as it were suspended upon the cataract. He wondered at my courage when I followed him without hesitation. The foundations of the house consisted of eight strong beams laid athwart, beneath which the cataract hurried down with tremendous velocity. The situation of this house afforded an awful but majestic sight. The noise was so tremendous that it was impossible to remain long within it. ... In the summer of 1788, General Haldimand, with a view to diverting me from my sorrow [the loss of her child] expressed a wish to see me in Quebec." Her husband was anxious to go home, and General Haldimand, who also wished himself back in England, had already written to 801 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND his government for leave. "We often canvassed the ways and means of making the voyage together." Riedesel declared that the happiest time he had spent in America had been on Haldimand's staff, and he would have been highly gratified to have been presented to the king by the general under whom he had served with so much pleasure. "Walking one day with him in his garden," says madame, "we observed on a sudden a great number of vessels enter the bay, and a beautiful one cast anchor at the foot of the mountain. The General said, 'These vessels are surely come to convey you and your troops to Europe. Perhaps we go in company.' My Frederica, who stood near me, exclaimed, 'Well, if we go, will you give me that fine ship there?' 'My dear child,' replied the General, 'if it is a transport ship you shall have it; but what would the king of England say if I occasioned him such an expense?' 'Oh,' returned she, 'the king loves his wife and children, and surely he will not grudge my father the pleasure of conveying his family home in safety. And will you not be glad to have your little wife in a good ship?' (The good General always called my little Augusta his wife.) He smiled, and said, 'Well, we will attend to it.' "Two days afterwards he came and told me, with evident emotion, that we must soon part; that our wishes were fulfilled but that he must remain, and that he should ever regret our absence. He had found, he said, my husband to be a man worthy of 302 RIEDESEL'S DEPARTURE all confidence, and met in every individual of his family a friend; he had fondly indulged the hope of retiring to Europe, in company with us, but that the king directed him to remain and he must obey. Remembering what my daughter had recently told him, and wishing by every means in his power to render the voyage safe and commodious, he had himself examined the ship on board of which we were to embark, but that it did not answer his expectation; that which had so much pleased my daughter was, on the contrary, as good a one as we could wish but was not of the number of those which were destined for the transportation of the troops. He took it, nevertheless, upon his personal responsibility, to freight it and to have it arranged according to our wishes. He begged me to look at it and give directions for our further accommodation ; strict attention would be immediately paid to them, orders to that effect having been already issued. . • . He hoped, he said, that he should enjoy, on our return to Quebec, our society, as much as we could indulge his wishes in that respect. He then went away deeply affected. How could one avoid feeling for such a man the most sincere friendship ? . . . On our return to Quebec we were informed that our ship was nearly ready, and that General Haldimand had several times looked at the progress of the new arrangements which were making in its interior for our accommodation. By his directions a cow had been bought to supply 303 I I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND us with milk. In a suitable part of the deck seeds of salad had been sown in a layer of vegetable earth. . . . My husband presented the General with his favourite mare and her fine foal, and in return the General begged my acceptance of a splendid muff and tippet of sable as a memorial of the country where we had so long resided. Furs are among the most important productions of Canada. . . . After the troops had been embarked we yet passed some hours with the good General. After supper he accompanied us to the vessel where at last we took a hearty and affecting farewell of him and many other friends." The lonely old general would toil up Mountain Hill again to the Chateau of St. Louis, and from his consolatory garden watch the sails of the Quebec slip from sight along the Isle of Orleans before he could once more take up the heavy cares that ever lay in wait for him. Constant watchfulness reacts upon the character. Had the governor had a wife of his own like Madame de Riedesel, and charming little children such as hers to relax those firmly closed lips of his, he might have been a happier man, and would certainly have been a more popular one—but still he had Mabane. The doctor, an Edinburgh man, and cousin to Thomson, the poet, had come to Canada at thirty, but was now nearing the age of fifty without showing abatement in the strength of his opinions or gaining policy in the expression of them. Like the governor 304 HIS SECRETARIES himself, he worked for the country's good rather than for party interests, and they had many enemies in common. From doctor he became Judge Adam Mabane, a member of the legislative council and one of the few whom His Excellency could trust. Haldimand often spent an evening out at Sillery with his friend, on his estate of Samos, or Wood- field. Du Calvet blamed Mabane for influencing the governor against himself, just as others blamed the Baron Maseres for spurring on Du Calvet against the general He seems to have had a friendliness for the Scotch, this Swiss soldier, perhaps from something akin in their national characteristics. The secretary who took charge of his French correspondence was Louis Genevay, of Switzerland. He had joined the Royal Americans as a volunteer in 1756, and may have come out with Haldimand, in whose regiment he remained till 1768. The secretary for English work was a Scot, Robert Mathews, who had a profound attachment for his chief, as indeed every one had who was brought into close relations with him. A hard worker himself, he was not given to sparing those under him, but they profited both by his sympathy and his example, and the secretaries laboured on at their duplicates and triplicates of letters with right good-will. In war-times with uncertain postal service, it was necessary to keep a copy of each letter sent, and this accounts for the quantity of Haldimand's own epistles in his 305 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND collection. Of those received, the majority are written in the formal terms of subordinate officers to the commander-in-chief, but some show a greater degree of intimacy both with governor and secretary. Such, for example, are the productions of Brigadier Allan MacLean, he who raised the Royal Highland Emigrants and defeated Arnold with them before Quebec in 1775. As a subaltern he had served with distinction in the Scotch Brigade in Holland, being specially mentioned for bravery at Bergen-op-Zoom, in 1774. Should the life of Haldimand ever be dramatized, Allan MacLean would supply the humour of the piece, beginning with his request for clothing for his regiment, one hundred jackets and waistcoats, "breeches not wanted." He had the Highland aptitude for standing feuds, especially with other Macs, and the general had some difficulty in keeping the peace between him and Captain John MacdonnelL MacLean puts in a plea for the French Canadians overburdened with corvee in his district, and he advises the enlistment of the numerous "real or pretended" Loyalists who are wandering about the country. His argument for the non-retention of the women and children among the rebel prisoners at Montreal is that they are "destroying" a large quantity of provisions, and he is the gentleman who implores Haldimand to send up an English regiment to make a little society. He also asks whether the Jesuit's old vestibule may not be used " to set up a 306 ALLAN MACLEAN theatre in earnest," modelled on the old Edinburgh one. There is a dearth of women performers, but no lack of vocal and instrumental musicians. An ambitious attempt is made at the production of Moliere's play Les Fourberies de Scapin. Later, while in command at Niagara, Allan Mac- Lean's opinions of the enemy are expressed with considerable force:—" It is a cruel thing for men of honour to have to do with such worthless and faithless people as the rebels, for while I was busy in using every means in my power to prevent the Indians from going to war, they were preparing to cut the throats of the Indians. I was forced to send three solemn embassies to stop four large parties last week only. However, please God, we shall be prepared for the worst." He speaks of the "designing, hypocritical Americans" having "the impudence to come here without dread," and declares that the fanners in the Niagara neighbourhood are in great alarm over the boundary rumours lest they should find themselves upon the wrong side of the line. Sooner than live among the Americans they would go to Japan, or retire beyond Hudson Bay, and MacLean cannot blame them, since:—" I do not believe the World ever produced a more deceitful or dangerous set of men than the Americans, and now they are become such Arch-Politicians by eight years practice that were old Matchiavell alive, he might go to school to the Americans to learn Politics more crooked than his own." 807 ¥i SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND I The Brigadier's criticisms of individuals are in the same original vein. Joseph Brant is a good fellow, but troublesome because " he knows too little and too much." His presence at Niagara is not desired during anxious times, nor is that of Sir John Johnson, as a puncheon of rum would have more effect on the Indians than all his eloquence. Not that MacLean has any favour for the beverage:— " It is a pity such a cursed liquor as rum was ever found out. We have more plague with rum than with all other business. The seamen must have it, for it is part of their wages, and they will desert or mutiny if they do not get it." Other officers observed that a little rum was necessary on short scouts, but for longer distances their men were better without it. When a new commissary is wanted at Niagara, MacLean asks that the one sent may not be too much of a gentleman, as the pay will not maintain one of that kind; and for himself he requests leave of absence to look after some private affairs, or he will be left with only eight shillings and sixpence a day to support himself and his family. His personal expenses are naturally heavy " in this desert country where there is no public house but that of the commandants, and they have to keep a table for passengers." He gets his leave of absence, his pay is continued throughout by Haldimand's influence, and we hear no more of the warrior till the general has himself taken farewell of Canada. 308 I L Ft HIS DEPARTURE The details of his departure are given in the Quebec Gazette:—" On Tuesday last His Excellency, General Haldimand, embarked on board His Majesty's ship Atlanta, His Excellency was received on the Grand Parade and saluted by the troops under arms. The streets were lined by the troops in garrison, and His Excellency was accompanied to the water side by His Honour the Lieut-Governor, the members of His Majesty's Council for the Province, by Brigadier General St. Leger the Commandant, other officers of the garrison, judges and others, who bid him an affectionate and respectful adieu. Upon his setting off from the shore His Excellency was saluted by the guns of the garrison, which the Atlanta returned, and immediately set sail with a fair wind for England.« John Schank, Esq., Captain in the Royal Navy and late Commissioner of the Marine Department in this Province, and Robert Mathews, Esq., Major of the 53rd regiment and late military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, went also in the Atlanta with the Governor." The absence of the clergy having been remarked at the general's leave-taking, the Bishop of Quebec hastened to explain that he and his brethren had been misinformed as to the date of His Excellency's departure; no disrespect was intended. "A fair wind for England" sounds hopeful, but what reception awaits the returning governor is told in a letter from Allan MacLean brought 309 IF SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND on board to his secretary at Plymouth. M. Du Calvet it appears, "pushed on by the General's enemies," intends to serve a writ against him immediately upon his arrival. "This is done with a view to put the highest affront and indignity Possible upon him, before he sees the King. . . . It will be very Easy for the Capt. of the At- talanta to prevent any water Bailiffs coming on Board, and tho' I doubt not but he could easily find bail at Portsmouth, yet it would be great means of rejoicing to his miscreant enemies to publish the adventure in all the Newspapers, as an affront to him, with comments. I should therefore think it best for him to take a good Portsmouth wherry and with the first tide of flood run up to Southampton, where you may take post chaise directly and come to London in spite of Calvette and his nefarious Protectors and advisors. A Baron Mezier of the Exchequer is his great ostensible protector. I wish you both safe and well on English Ground for the weather has been very stormy and I hate your nasty sloops of war." The story goes that Haldimand did escape his pursuers at Portsmouth but was arrested in London just as he was buckling on his sword to go to court, but his own diary has no word of it:— "Left Quebec on the 16th November, 1784, in the Atalanta, Captain Frelyn. Anchored at Spithead the 8th January, '85. Arrived in London on the evening of the 9th, 10th saw C, dined at Lord Sydney's 310 HIS NEPHEW ANTHONY saw General Lord Amherst. Tuesday 11: Brigadier MacLean, Captain Cullen came to see me and Davison. Was presented to the Bang on Wednesday. On Thursday invited and presented to the Queen." If it be true that he was arrested, it is also true that his nephew, Antoine Francois Haldimand went bail for him—but one of the many services he was proud to perform for his distinguished uncle. This is the nephew in whom there was no disappointment and probably the happiest hours of the time which the general passed in England were in his house at St. Mary Axe, Hampstead. Mr. Anthony, who was the founder of the banking house, Morris, Prevost & Co., looked after his uncle's money investments and was in every respect a son to him in his old age, one upon whom the retired governor could lean with the greatest confidence. He took as much interest in the settlement in life of Anthony's daughters as if they were his own grandchildren, though he says, "they have an ascendency over the mind of their father which it would be useless to oppose." Besides Anthony Francis and the three who came to America, Jean-Abraham Haldimand of Turin had two other sons, Bertrand and Henry, and with these also the general concerned himself, as we read in his diary when Anthony shows him " a letter from his brother, Henry, on which we must think seriously. It will never do for him to vegetate at Turin." 811 If SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND The young man went into partnership with Francois Long, but despite the help given to himself and the firm by his prosperous London brother, he got into difficulties and sought a way out of them by suicide at Turin in 1789. The general's care for his kin extended to a still younger generation, as in the case of his grand- nephew, Frederick Devos, son of Francois-Louis Haldimand's daughter. This young man went out to the army in Canada, in 1789, but he kept up the reputation of his predecessors for extravagance, drawing upon both his great-uncle and Mr. Antoine Francois Haldimand till the former declared he would let him vegetate as a subaltern if he did not mend his ways. Nevertheless he made excuses for Lieutenant Devos, saying that he did not know the value of money, and was relieved to learn, " he has been spending freely but behaves honourably." Frederick the younger doubtless did improve with years, as in 1791 he wrote repentant letters to his great-uncle, whom he copied in remaining a bachelor, and he rose to be a colonel in the English army. Captain Louis Haldimand's debts pursued his uncle to London, but other and more welcome letters came from Canada with every returning traveller, often over two months on the way. The general sent also by hand some of his own communications, as well as books and newspapers, to the friends he had left across the Atlantic, and used 312 PROMOTION the same method to pay his debts:—Journal, June 14th, 1790, "I asked Captain Schank to carry ten guineas to Mrs. Cramahe' for four dozen of Madeira which Cramahe* had lent me on my arrival in Quebec, and which my servant had neglected to replace." A portrait of Brant's wife and a view of Niagara Falls were sent him, as well as sincere congratulations on his " success over his traducers" who would be confounded at his being invested with the Order of the Bath. The honour was somewhat costly, one observes, by marking the memorandum in Sir Frederick's note-book. The fees amounted to £418-7-7, besides, "Fees at installation £69-17-6; for a plume £15-15; Dinner to the Knights £9-19-6; Subscription for the installation of Knight £250" making a total of £768-19-7 sterling. On January 1st, 1776, he was promoted to be general in America, and on the 11th, colonel- commandant of the first battalion, 60th Foot, formerly the Royal Americans. He had been a major- general in America since May 25th, 1772, and on August 29th, 1777, was made lieutenant-general in the whole army. He had not, it was supposed, left his post for good and indeed there is a notice in the Gentleman's Magazine for October 7th, 1785:— "This day Sir Frederick Haldimand took his final leave of the King previous to his going to Canada of which he is appointed governor." That he did not return may have been the result of the commo- 313 pr>m SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND tion which Hay and others continued to raise against him. In Major De Peyster's opinion the general's friends had but one quarrel with him— that he had not hanged Du Calvet. Henry Hamilton had been made lieutenant-governor of Quebec, chiefly as an indemnity for his sufferings in the Vincennes affair, while Barry St. Leger took Haldimand's place at the head of the troops; but the two of course did not agree, and Hamilton was shortly superseded by Brigadier- General Hope. This gentleman took up his abode in the Chateau St. Louis, and would have been pleased to retain Haldimand's housekeeper, Mrs. Fairchild, but she preferred to go to England if the general was not coming back. It was October, 1786, before she embarked, on a merchant ship, as Major Mathews wrote, "she would be overcome if she had to sail on a transport with riotous soldiers and their still more riotous wives." By that time Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, had arrived as governor-general, and later, according to Captain Freeman, he and his lady became extremely unpopular from their "high, reserved, and distant conduct." Dr. Mabane, Haldimand's chief correspondent, was represented as standing "like a Rock, unshaken by surrounding storms, with Roman virtue." The new governor had new councillors, the principal one being Chief Justice Smith, whose influence over Lord Dorchester Mr. Jenkin Williams, 314 HIS CORRESPONDENTS and, indeed, all of Haldimand's correspondents, deplored. They thought he was the most unsuitable person that could have been sent to Canada. He was keeping the French Canadians in hot water in his endeavour to anglify everything, and was himself a rebel at heart. Quebec was becoming "a little Boston."1 Besides the Canadian letters, the general was in correspondence with a Captain Traytorrens on the continent, perhaps a relation of his own, as the name was his mother's. There was also Major Augustin Prevost, who wrote from Montgomery, Pennsylvania, where he was exerting himself to procure settlers for Sir Frederick's lands in Bedford county that were in danger of being sold for taxes. Prevost proposed that Swiss or German colonists should be sent out, as the Americans were friendly to such, and advised the expenditure of about ten guineas on each family for seed corn, a cow, and a couple of low-priced horses. He would himself attend to their reception—"My gratitude towards you alone dictates on this occasion, and shall think myself happy if any of my time can be devoted to 1 From the diary, June 11th, 1787.—"Met Lord Sydney, who was coming from his office. I acquainted him with the contents of the letters I had received from Quebec. He said he had never had a good opinion of Smith, but that Lord Dorchester had asked for him, and had made himself responsible for his conduct. He told me further that everyone except Maseres and a person who was no longer in the country spoke weU of Mabane; that Lord Dorchester, although he did not speak so highly of him as I, spoke well of him, although he did not believe him to know much." 815 WJm 1 1 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND your interest." The ex-governor had no such good friend to. look after his lands in West Florida, nor his house at Pensacola. General Augustin Prevost, the major's father, was a countryman and a very old friend of General Haldimand. Upon his death, after the latter had returned to England, it was Sir Frederick who exerted himself on behalf of the widow and her five young children, giving sympathy, advice, and practical assistance in securing a pension for her from the king. He extended a helping hand to the major's son. "The young man, having lost General Prevost, his grandfather, is much embarrassed. I must look after his interests." But he inquired into the character and amount of the debts before he paid them. A friend of Haldimand, born the same year as himself, was Lord Heathfield, better known as General Elliot, the heroic defender of Gibraltar. After a paralytic stroke at the age of seventy-two, he took it into his head to marry again, and it was to Sir Frederick that the king appealed to use his influence to stop him. The Swiss must be clannish, like the Scotch, if one is to judge by Haldimand's intimates. General de Bude* was a native of Vaud Canton, and had been likewise in the service of the Prince of Orange and the King of Sardinia. Though nearly twenty years his junior, he gave Haldimand advice upon official affairs, as well as "the effect of cherry-water on headaches arising from the stomach." Budd and 316 HIS FRIENDS M. de Salzas, also a native of Switzerland, were men of fine attainments, entrusted with the education of princes and with other high offices of state. Both were Haldimand's friends, and "a man is known by the company he keeps." 817 wsm wrw^wi CHAPTER XVI HIS RELICS THERE are in the archives at Ottawa two hundred and sixty-two large volumes of manuscript letters, the greater part known as the "Haldimand Collection," the smaller as the "Bouquet Collection." The latter consists of thirty volumes containing Brigadier Bouquet's official correspondence for the last ten years of his life. Haldimand was Bouquet's heir; he kept his papers as he kept his own, and both sets were copied for Canada from the original documents in the British Museum, through the public spirit and energy of the late Douglas Brymner, LL.D., Dominion Archivist. The service done by that gentleman to all future writers of Canadian history can be estimated only by a careful study of his reports for the years 1884 to 1889, wherein he has epitomized every letter in each collection. No longer can complaint be made of the dearth of records concerning the epoch of our national life when it was doubtful whether we should have king or congress for our future ruler. To quote from the report on Canadian archives for 1889:— "The information contained in these papers relates to an immense extent of territory on the Ohio; 319 I. SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the Mississippi; the Illinois; the Wabash; in the Floridas; on the lakes from Superior and Huron eastward; in the frontier posts to the north and south; Michillimakinak, Detroit and Niagara; on Lake Ontario, with its fortified posts on the mainland and islands; on both sides of the St. Lawrence above and below Montreal to the Gulph and onwards to Nova Scotia; on the Richelieu, Lake Champlain, the Mohawk Valley, the Hudson. In fact there is scarcely a locality bordering on, approaching to, or whose interests might affect the future of Canada, respecting which there are not more or less minute details to be found in this mass of correspondence, which fills no less than 232 volumes and covers a period of thirty-three years of public service." Haldimand was a collector, and in Dr. Brym- ner he found a kindred spirit to appreciate the value of the documents he preserved. The years the archivist spent in arranging the letters according to date and to subject, the fine judgment he displayed in the terse completeness of his abstracts entitled Dr. Brymner to speak with authority, and he said: "I must confess that I have derived from the study of the correspondence a high idea of the abilities of Haldimand and of the moderation he showed in the exercise of almost unlimited power at so critical a period, when a calm and sober judgment was needed to restrain passion and to enforce repression without having recourse to violence." 320 if THE PRIVATE JOURNAL "Example is the mildest form of command " may be given as a free translation of the Latin phrase upon his commemorative tablet. The governor had learned to control himself, and was therefore fitted to control others. Not the least of Dr. Brymner's public services was the translation into English of Haldimand's private diary from the original jottings in old-fashioned French, written in a small, indistinct hand. The entries are made irregularly; sometimes daily for a month or more; sometimes with a gap of a year or two, but they are admirably suggestive not only of the general's personal character, but of the life he lived in common with other men of his age and station. The memoranda begin on January 1st, 1786, and are all written in London, where the general seems to have had a large circle of friends and acquaintances. In this popular diner-out and whist-player, there is no trace of the "sour-looking, morose man of unsociable disposition," described by Quebec critics. The portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds which the Queen herself said resembled him perfectly, will admit no doubt as to the fineness of his face; and according to his contemporaries he had a tall, well-built figure and most agreeable manners. Had he not been a courtly old gentleman, he would not have been so well received at court. " You are always a soldier and always right," said the king upon one occasion, and another entry 821 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND reads, "The King did me the honour of speaking to me for a long time in the presence of Lord Sydney. The Duke of Hamilton was to be created Knight of the Thistle. I remained to see the ceremony and was extremely surprised at the little order observed on an occasion which should be solemn! No ribbon was prepared, and the King was obliged to enter the cabinet to find it himself. Negligence of this kind is unpardonable. . . . When I had the honour of receiving the Order of the Bath, everything passed with much more decorum, and I have reason to believe that order had been given that the ceremony might be conducted in such a manner as to flatter me. The King, in handing me the ribbon, told me that he could not give it to any one with more pleasure and when I kissed the King's hand he held it to me with affection. All the Knights who were at my reception appeared in the robe of the Order, and all the ceremony in general passed with much propriety." Her Majesty was equally gracious: "The Queen spoke to me for a long time and with much kindness. She spoke in high terms of the two Swiss young ladies whom she had had with the princesses." "The Queen asked me at what time I arrived, I answered that I had been more than an hour and a half on the road and that at last I had been obliged to leave my carriage in the middle of St. James Street and take a sedan chair. That in spite of this, it was with great difficulty I had 322 A CONNOISSEUR reached St. James' at three o'clock. The court was crowded and it seemed to me that I had never seen so many beautiful women there." He is a connoisseur in good looks:—"One of the prettiest faces I have seen in England"; "Her ladyship must have been a very fine woman, she still has the remains and she seems to be entirely the mistress"; "a beautiful and amiable woman"; " Lady Chatham I found very pretty." The wife of Admiral Digby "is not pretty but amiable and even tempered"; "spent the evening at Mrs. Robertson's, where there were only old women." The general probably enjoyed more the evening he stayed with the last named lady while her husband was at court and she made him the confidant of her grievances. "At last she acknowledged that what she most wished for in the world was that her husband should obtain the ribbon, but if I told any one this she would never forgive me. I joked a good deal with her on the subject." He is quite a beau it appears, "The hairdresser has begun to fit me"; an acquaintance comes to borrow "my lined coat from Pallison to have his made in the same style." A man of taste in pictures, too, one judges by his remarks upon the different exhibitions he visits as well as the private collections such as Dr. Adair's:—"I did not find a single poor one among them. He showed me a small picture in mosaic, which the Pope had presented to him and which he valued at 6,000 guineas. It is certainly the finest 323 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND genre picture I have seen." "Called at Somerset House Exhibition which I thought very bad," but M. des Enfants' gallery pleases him. "Went to see a collection of antiquities with which I was delighted. I then saw some pictures in needle work which were very well done." His reading was mostly on military subjects:— "Paid Helmlay 3 guineas and a half for the two volumes of Marshall Turenne's portfolio "; " I read with pleasure the last campaign of the King of Prussia"; " Read St. Louis' Expedition into Egypt." But he kept up with the current news of the continent:—"Paid for Leyden papers and for UEsprit des Journaux for the year ended 31st Dec, 1786." Undoubtedly a music lover, he speaks very often of going to the Baron Alvensleben's concert, which seems to have been a weekly affair, and he criticizes another entertainment, thus:—" Spent the evening at Lady Amherst's, where there was a bad concert and a crowd, and several persons grumbled that there was no card-playing." Probably the general himself was inwardly one of the grumblers, for he dearly loved a game, and most of his evenings were spent at the card-table. He had the necessary qualifications of method and memory for a good whist-player, augmented by his training in public life that led him to follow his own rule, "Say nothing, but make observations." The stakes were never high, nor the hours what we should consider 324 LATE HOURS late—half-past nine, ten and eleven. "Played a rubber with Lady Albemarle, Lady Essex and Bud£; won two guineas "; " Bude dined with me, and we went to spend the evening at Mrs. Morrison's, where I lost a guinea"; "Went to Mrs. Robertson's where were many pretty women. Played a rubber, won two guineas and went home at half- past eleven." It must have been the beauties that kept him so late that night. The Queen herself dined at half- past four, and at the inauguration of the American Club, of which Sir Frederick was sometime president, he " hoped the old fashion would be followed of having dinner served precisely at five and finished at eight." Alas for good resolutions! " Dined at the Club; we were 24; all in good humour; stayed there till half past one in the morning." From one party where there was " dancing before and after supper," he did not get home till two o'clock, and at another " crush" he was detained till half-past three in the morning, but these were exceptions. Had he been twenty years younger one of the beautiful women he so often comments upon would have set her cap for him, but he admires them en masse and is quite grandfatherly in his appreciation of a younger generation at " Lady Sydney's ball where I found 22 couples of children, the prettiest imaginable." The Amherst entertainments were not so pleasing. 825 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND "From there we went to Lady Amherst's, where there were many people who all looked bored"; and at a large dinner His Lordship gave, " I asked for a bottle of old Madeira because it was offered to us with a bad grace." Whatever respect Haldimand may have had for Amherst as a superior officer does not stand the test of closer acquaintance. " I complained to Lord Amherst that no regard had been paid to us [General Prevost and himself] and out services, that we had relied on the protection we had deserved in every respect, but that he did not protect us. He only made an evasive answer. He is a man who never uses his credit for any one, and who certainly does not like foreigners." " I could see that he was playing the flunky to Lord Amherst, and that the latter (who never does a good turn to any one) wanted to make use of us without himself appearing." Lord Sydney, on the contrary, acted a friendly part to the general throughout. He dined with His Lordship "almost en famille," upon numerous formal occasions also, and it was to him he applied when any favours were wanted for his numerous proteges. "The fine feelings and the nice shades " are perceptible in the social life of the time. " The Duke of Northumberland received me very well"; " Was at Mr. Pitt's levee, who was very gracious "; "Lord Morton always receives me well"; " Lord Lucy accosted me familiarly"; "Lord Sydney received 326 COLONIAL VISITORS me with all the affability possible " ; "I have every reason to regret not having paid my court to Weymouth"; "Lady Amherst was polite enough"; "The Duke of Richmond spoke to me more graciously than he had ever done"; "Sir Joseph Yorke seems rather stiff"; " Visited the Archbishop of York, who received me well." Twice is Sir George Yonge mentioned as being cool, and Sir Frederick himself tells of meeting La Naudiere, " to whom I gave a cold reception." Not many of his Canadian acquaintances received the same at his hands. He kept an open door for the travellers from over the water—Dr. Barr, Deschambault, whom he took to court; Colonel Butler, Major Scott, Major Jessup, Captain Twiss, and many others, including Joseph Brant and the Indian agent, Claus. Joseph, who "showed me a copy of the speech he made to Lord Sydney, which I found weak and shallow and much below what I expected from him. I don't wish to be any longer mixed up with these people." Nevertheless, he superintended the painting of Joseph's portrait by Rigaud and made some valuable suggestions about it. " Captain Foley, Brigadier MacLean and Colonel Cullen dined with me, and we sat longer at table than I could have wished." Was the brigadier at his best, might one enquire, and did he hold the company spell-bound, or was Sir Frederick's old port too much for them all? He looked sharply after his cellar and made memoranda of its contents 327 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND at different times. " My nephew sent me my Madeira, 11 cases of 12 large bottles each, and a pipe well filled. I put the whole (except one case) in my cellar under the church." "There are fifty dozen empty bottles under the kitchen stair." He is kind to his servants and pays them liberally, but expects good attendance in return. "My servant Francois was insolent. He must go." Another is dismissed for telling a he, and upon the departure of another the master of the house remarks: "I shall lose a good cook, but shall at the same time get rid of a bad lot." One, Ernest, he observes, has been weeping. "I asked Mrs. Fair- child the cause, who said she had seen him crying in his room, but he said nothing on the subject except that he was always unhappy. A little patience will find out the reason." The reason* seems to be jealousy of his fellow servants, especially of the head one, Tuckfield, whose zeal in his master's service exceeds his tact in the management of his subordinates. The general's trials with his domestics are reminiscent of his Canadian cares, and now, as then, he consults his chief counsellor. "General Bude dined with me, and advised me strongly to take an English housekeeper; to have, in addition, a chief servant, who would take care of the silver plate, the table, and the door; a chamber maid to keep the house tidy, and a cook. These four persons would always remain at my house in London whilst I was absent at any time. A man servant 328 DOMESTIC SERVICE also will be needed to attend to the horses and go behind the carriage, besides a coachman and a groom. That would make seven servants to maintain the whole year." Evidently Mrs. Fairchild was not English—probably Swiss, as her correspondence is all in French, and she tells the general of a niece in Geneva, "who had a great wish to come to see her, but it seemed to me that she did not want to have her, and I think she is right." Mrs. Fairchild, who had kept the general's house since the Florida days, may have come from the south with him, as she had property in that locality. Sir Frederick would not be so likely to take Bud£'s advice about housekeepers as in other matters. In dismissing a man servant he says: "He is well pleased with me, but complains of Mrs. Fairchild. He is a fool of whom I am glad to be rid." "Paid five guineas and a half for two gowns and linen for two chemises for Mrs. Fairchild.* Another jotting typical of the time reads:" Was at Spence, the dentist, to fasten my tooth. He said when I was leaving for the continent he would put in a stronger thread which would last for a year." Lord Barrington, in 1778, had promised Haldimand that although his pay as inspector-general of the forces in the West Indies was to cease while he was governor in Quebec, it would be resumed at his resignation of that appointment. This arrangement was not adhered to, though he was granted instead 829 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND the pay of lieutenant-general—four pounds a day— which rank, he thought, should have entitled him to aides-de-camp, but these were refused. "Colonel Marsh told me that the ministry had the intention of bringing our battalions into Great Britain, and that two regiments would be formed from them; that my battalion would be the 60th and Prevost's the 61st. I told him that I did not see that by this step any great favour was done to us, and that at the best it would be at the expense of our income. He did not appear to understand it in that light, and believed it would be a great advantage for us. (Effect of National vanity.)" "General Robertson told me he would show me what Sir Henry Clinton received in America as commander-in-chief .... and made me understand what a fool I was not to have taken all the emoluments which should have come to me." Before Sir Guy Carleton was appointed his successor the two frequently met in London. "He imagined I had saved money, because Clinton had brought back a large amount from America. I made him understand that our pay had been very different; that besides, Clinton had drawn all his provisions from the King's magazines and all his supplies from the Barrack Master General's stores." "The more I know of this country the more I see that it is the height of folly to trust to the generosity of the nation. Services are forgotten the moment there is no longer need of us." "Was at 330 LORD DORCHESTER court, which was very brilliant. I found Sir Guy Carleton there, and told him that when he should go to Canada he would find there my carriages, post chaise, and twelve horses, which would be much at his service. ... I offered him the house at Montmorency, but he said Lady Carleton would not take it at any price on account of her children." Haldimand had bought all Carleton's furniture when he succeeded him; had also employed his servants and staff, but the newly created Lord Dorchester was not willing to copy his courtesy, though with the idea of a possible return to Quebec the general had left many things he valued behind him. There was a clock, for example, that followed him to London in pieces "for want of being properly packed. N.B.—When leaving a place not to return, nothing should be left behind, nor should any one be ^rusted." Sir Frederick was most anxious to obtain a position of some kind for his late secretary, Major Mathews, whose work for himself was done, and who talked of going back to Canada to cut staves for a living. A visitor whose interest in the major is to be encouraged is General Murray. "He made great protestations of friendship for me, but I found him still the same." "General Bude* appears to be interested in Mathews; I will try to draw some advantage from it." He takes his ex-secretary to court. "Neither the King nor Queen spoke to Mathews. 1 was told that according to etiquette 831 msa SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND they did not speak to Majors." The general became responsible for a loan from his nephew to his prote'ge', and eventually the king offered to make Mathews lieutenant-governor of Antigua, entirely on Haldimand's account he wished the latter to be told, though not designing thereby to detract from the major's merits. When Lord Dorchester at last agreed to take Mathews to Canada as his aide-decamp, Sir Frederick jots in his journal: "I am myself delighted, because he may watch over the Doctor's (Mabane's) conduct, and prevent his headstrong politics." In June, 1787, the major went to Detroit as lieutenant-governor, and a couple of years later he sent his former chief a bark canoe, probably intended for use upon Lake Neuchatel. Sir Frederick's breeding would not permit him to give outward expression to his estimate of the people he met, but if some of them could have had a peep at his diary they would have asked him to dinner no more. "I was well received by My Lord and My Lady, and dined very agreeably. His son seemed to me to have very little sense. Home at half past eight." General Gage " seems to get leaner every day "; Amherst "exhibited his usual fussiness "; " I noticed that Robertson and Ogilvy took every opportunity to flatter his Lordship, and that he accepted it willingly "; "After a quarter of an hour's conversation in which there was not a word of good sense," etc. One gentleman is "an eternal talker " and another " as stupid and silly as 332 POLITICAL GOSSIP usual." " Lady Holderness appeared more cheerftd than usual"; " The Baron always positive when politics were touched on." Even royalty cannot escape:—"The Prince of Wales is obstinate in his opinions"; " The King does not correct his children and when the Queen leaves the room they behave most improperly ; " The company believed that the Prince of Wales is married to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and anticipated from it the most fatal consequences to the State." His own opinion of the lady is recorded elsewhere:— " Mrs. Fitzherbert has fine eyes but a very common air." "I saw Mrs. Fitzherbert, whom 1 did not think beautiful nor handsome. She is what is called une bonne piice." (A sly piece). The general was not above a bit of gossip about individuals of lower rank, the incomes of certain widows, for example; but his interest in public matters never waned and European politics were often discussed in his company. " It appeared to us that we are and shall for a long time be the dupes of France." Of that country's rulers in 1786 he writes, "The King appears to be absolute, the Queen a coquette, and both little esteemed." " Finally it is with France, as with us, everything is done by party spirit and by the influence of a few persons in power." Bude' dines with him and tells him of Lord Gren- ville's plan for placing him (Bude) in the family of the Duke of York. " This opened a long conversation, 333 I SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND during which I had reason to be convinced how dangerous it is to be beside Princes, and how necessary is prudence to gain and preserve their confidence." Herschel's discovery of two satellites to his new planet, the Georgium sidus, which we now know as Uranus, is noted in the journal with the remark:— " No astronomer in France or elsewhere had been able to see them, and the French especially were greatly piqued that our instruments so much surpassed theirs." In the current war in Europe the Turks are proving themselves, "not so contemptible as I thought," and the general's opinion carries weight even with His Majesty, who " would speak with me respecting the second Bohemian war, in which Marshal Tour commanded the Austrians." " January 1st, 1787. Went to pay a visit to Lady Sydney at Frogmore, who received me well, as did the family. I left at two o'clock and arrived home at four, after having been obliged to walk more than five miles before my carriage could join me, my servants having gone to breakfast in a tavern. 2. Tuesday. Awoke with a bad cold, which obliged me to keep my room. . . . Gave my servants for their new year gifts; Mrs. Fairchild, 6 guineas; W. Tuckfield, 2 g.; Ernest, 1 g.; Francois, 1 g.; coachman, J g.; groom, J g.; cook, 1 g.; Jany, 1 g.; 13 guineas. 3. Wednesday. My cold has increased; I have not slept, had fever and rose with a bad headache. ... 4. Thursday. Took a whey posset on 334 ILL-HEALTH going to bed"; but neither this remedy nor the " emulsion to promote expectoration with the help of hran tea with linseed " was immediately effectual " I sent for Dr. Browne, who advised honey as good for graveL Took bran tea with honey and lemon juice. Cold almost gone but still a weight on me." He complains towards spring of swelling in his ankles, burning pains in his legs, and was no doubt looking eagerly forward to a sojourn with his own people in Switzerland. Every visitor from his native land is warmly welcomed, and some of the items they impart are jotted down. " He said that everything was quiet in Switzerland, but that they were tired of the French, who were introducing play and dissipation. It is an abominable race everywhere." Another friend proposes to go with him to Dept- ford, where he can see all sorts of yachts and select one suitable for the lake at Yverdun. "June 1st. I called on the wagon maker, who promised to be at my house on Wednesday next to meet the boat builder, to devise a carriage suitable for transporting a boat in Switzerland. June 3rd. Poor General Gage died yesterday after having lingered a long time. Lady Fawcett was surprised I had not spoken to her about the remedy she had offered me. I must no doubt have been in a bad humour." The general's kindliness is evident whether he is prescribing "ginseng root" for an emaciated friend or playing the peacemaker:—"The two brothers do not live in harmony together. The 335 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND eldest is getting old, dreamy and melancholy. I must try to bring about a reconciliation." "Called on Mrs. Munster, who politely reproached me for having neglected her." "Was at the levee which was numerously attended ; the King asked me where I was going in spring. I told him that I would go to Switzerland by the middle of May or June; that I might perhaps go to Italy where I had been in '49. He told me that should I go to Naples I must take care not to bring back the plague. I told him that having escaped in my youth I ran little risk now, etc. I remarked that after the Queen had spoken to me she looked at me several times very attentively and with a kindly air, believing that I had been ill. The King hoped that I would not be as long absent from England as I had been from Switzerland, and that I should establish my domicile here." The entries for the year 1787 cease at the end of June and there are no more until his return to London in the end of May, 1789. A letter from Captain Freeman, March 17th, 1789, tells how he is missed:—"He (Bude'), as well as all Your other most respectable Friends, who He says are making daily enquiries after you, think the happy recovery of our beloved Monarch will be a powerful inducement to You to come over and join the rest of his devoted Friends in the personal and heartfelt congratulations each seems most forward in testifying 336 mw IN SWITZERLAND on the providential and joyful occasion. You will not find the roads difficult—nay, upon the whole, as You Sir are not fond of much warmth and do not fear fresh weather I think you will find travelling at this season no way inconvenient, if you don't make too long stages. Your House is fitted up in the nicest manner, and were I to take upon me to construe the ideas of every one of your acquaintance as well as the above mehtion'd Friends it wou'd be * that you ought not to put off coming over.' . . . Mrs. Fairchild is very well, and quite anxious to see Switzerland, that happy, happj Country, would to Heaven 1 my Dear General, I had wherewith to fix myself in it and cultivate to my latest breath that kindness and affectionate Friendship I so unreservedly experienced from you and Your respectable amiable Relations. Pray present me to them one and all in every grateful and tender recollection that can be acceptable from, Sir, Your ever obliged and most sincerely attached obdt. humle. Servt., Q. I. Freeman." " Arrived in London on the 81st of May, 1789. Visited on the 1st June Lord and Lady Amherst, Lord and Lady Sydney, Sir George and Lady Yonge, Lady Holderness, Mrs. Molisson, General Bude\ the War Office, Lord Sydney's office, the Duke of Northumberland, Baron Alvensleben, General and Lady Fawcett, Lord Hopetown, the Duke of York, Lord Dover, Sir J. York, Mrs. Robertson." 887 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND This looks as if Sir Frederick had returned from his native heath with all his old-time energy; but the diary jottings for the next two years are shorter and show less intellectual vigour: "Scribbled over the paper the whole afternoon without being able to write the Chevalier Grau a letter which seemed presentable." "August 11. Tuesday. My birthday," he writes, but he does not mention that he has now completed his seventy-first year. The dinners and the card parties are resumed with not quite their former zest, and he often speaks of spending the day arranging old papers, those records of a busy past, now forever behind him. Probably he destroyed anything of a personal nature that he did not wish to pass to his heirs. In the Haldimand Collection we find none of the letters mentioned on February 4th, 1786:—"Spent the day in reading letters from Bq. [Bouquet] and Prevost of 1755 and '56 and some from Monette which reawakened my old friendship to her. I must write .her or see her on my way to the continent." This is the only hint of a possible romance in the whole of the general's papers. No one shall publish his love letters. He comments upon his servants and his cellar as before, but not so much upon his acquaintances. "March 24th, 1790. My nephew came to see me to inform me of the death of my sister Justine." She was his only one, and though not the man to express his deeper feelings on paper, one may guess 338 'v-L^ "WMtssbk ska A NEW FRIEND at his grief, for he had been recently renewing his acquaintance with all of his family. London palls upon him, though he may not realize that the weight of three score years and ten has aught to do with it. There is no word now of his riding in the park, though he mentions a walk there occasionally, and his memoranda are more trivial. "Brought butter and fruit from Hampstead." "Took a walk with General Smith; went to the tinsmith's, from there to Du- bosk's, bookseller, Gerard Street, and then to a German's where we purchased a ham, beans and lentiles." "How to cook a ham:" the recipe follows. " Bought a gold snuff-box for which I paid eighteen guineas." Sir Frederick makes a new acquaintance, one Colonel Miranda, whom he finds "always more interesting" and repeats the fact with elderly garrulity. Apparently a soldier of fortune, Miranda's European talk would make him an agreeable companion to the old general for a dinner or a trip to VauxhalL The social functions continue and he speaks of playing "commerce" and "quadrille," but attends no more dances. "Dined at CoL Williamson's, played vingt-et-un nearly two hours. I was greatly fatigued, especially in the knees and legs which were much swollen." "June 4th. King's Birthday which was very brilliant. Dined at Lord Amherst's in uniform; home at half-past nine." 389 rmm SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND During the summer of 1789, Bertrand Haldimand, his nephew, had written from Yverdun concerning the building of a house for the general at Champetit. "February 25th^ 1790. Was at court which was not very full. The Queen asked me if my house in Switzerland were finished. I answered no, but I thought of having it finished in the spring." The spring, found him still in London, however. "April 22nd, 1790. Took General Powell to the Drawing Room. The Queen told me that she wished very much to see Switzerland which she prefers to Italy." Dr. Mabane wrote on June 9th, 1791:—"You had set off for Switzerland about the latter end of March," but before the letter crossed the Atlantic, his friend had set off upon a longer journey. The diary jottings come to an abrupt conclusion on August 12th, 1790. Of Haldimand's death, which occurred at the house of his brother in Yverdun, on June 5th, 1791, we have no particulars; but knowing the sort of man he was and the kind of life he had led, it is safe to surmise that he would not go "Like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon," but " like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." His will was entered and translated on June 21st, 1791 :— "In the name of God Amen. I, Sir Frederick Haldimand, Knight of the Order of the Bath and 340 HIS WILL General in the Service of His Brittannick Majesty, thinking proper to dispose of my property Do by this present Will name my dear nephew, Anthony Francis Haldimand, settled in London, for my Universal Heir of all the property which I shall possess at my death, as well in Europe as in America, and of what nature soever such property may consist without being obliged to render any account thereof to any one of the family under any pretence, the whole upon the following conditions, that he shall pay all my just debts and the legacies hereunder mentioned. "I leave to my sister in Law Corn Low the sum of twenty thousand Livres, Swiss money. " Item to my four nieces, Henrietta Haldimand, Mesdames Newlett, Aubergeaunoix and Bertram to each the sum of twenty thousand Francs, Swiss. "Item to my Great Nephew, Lieutenant Devos, the sum of Thirty thousand Francs, Swiss. " Item to my Great Nephews and Nieces, that is to say to the six children of my nephew Anthony, to the five of my niece Newlet (including therein Lieutenant Devos) to the two of my niece Aubergeaunoix, and to the four of my niece Bertram, making seventeen in number, I leave to each of them the sum of Ten thousand Livres, Swiss, on the express condition that my nephew Anthony (whose generosity and prudence I know) shall have full power to keep in his hands all the sums above mentioned or any part thereof, and as long as he 841 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND shall judge convenient for the advantage of the above named, paying them interest at four per cent, per annum without being obliged to pay the principal on any pretence. "I leave to the Parish of St. George, Hanover, my Parish, eight hundred Livres, Swiss. "Item to the Hospital of Yverdun, to the Direction of the Poor and to the Library of that place, sixteen hundred Francs each. "I leave to Mr. Adam Maben, Judge of the Common Pleas of Quebec; the sum of Ten thousand Livres, Swiss, revertable to Mrs. Elizabeth Maben, his sister, in case she survives him, but in case they shall both happen to die before me this Legacy shall not be of any validity as to their Heirs. "I beg of Major Mathews, Mr. Jenkin Williams, Solicitor General at Quebec, Captain Lewis Gene- vay, and Captain Freeman of the 24th Regt., to accept of sixteen hundred Francs, Swiss, each as a mark of my remembrance and esteem. " I also beg of Mr. de Salzas and General Bude' to accept of my two gold snuff Boxes. " My nephew shall pay to each of my servants a year's wages, none of them being at liberty to Claim any of my wearing apparel. "Finally I annul and revoke every other will which I have made before the date hereof and willing that this may have a full effect I have written the same with my own hand and have 342 DESCENDANTS OF HIS FAMILY hereto affixed the seal of my arms at London, 30th March, 1791. Fred. Haldimand (L.S.) "N.B. A pound sterling shall always be valued at the rate of sixteen Livres Swiss money." Of the nieces mentioned, Henrietta, and Mes- dames Aubergeaunoix and Bertram were daughters of Sir Frederick's youngest brother, Francois-Louis Haldimand. The trusted Anthony Francis had a no less reliable son, William Haldimand (1784-1862), director of the Bank of England, member of parliament, and friend of Charles Dickens, who, in "Pickwick Papers," made copy out of his election experiences. A bachelor like his great-uncle, and a distinguished philanthropist, William Haldimand settled near Lausanne in 1828, and died there. He had inherited Sir Frederick's papers, and five years before his death presented them to the British Museum. His sister, Mrs. Marcet, made a name for herself by her educational writings, and her son, Professor Marcet, who died in 1883, was noted for his scientific achievements. * The Haldemans of the United States have also distinguished themselves in science and literature, proving in their search for truth that they were worthy descendants of Honnete Gaspard, the grandfather of Sir Frederick. Professor Samuel Steman Haldeman (1812-1880) exhibited the family thoroughness in researches along many divergent lines, from conchol- ogy and entomology to philology and archaeology. 843 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND On May 5th, 1784, General Haldimand had laid the foundation stone of an addition to the Castle of St. Louis, which was called the Chateau Haldimand in his honour. It consisted principally of a large assembly-room for use upon state occasions. The building was not completed for three years after the general had left Quebec, but it was said to have the finest dancing floor in Canada, and objections were made to gentleman guests marring it with their "creepers," despite the orderlies set to watch the feet of all who came in. While the workmen were building this wing, under Haldimand's direction, they had occasion to level the courtyard, arid in so doing came upon a curious Old stone bearing a shield with a gilt Maltese cross upon it and the date, 1647. His Excellency ordered the relic to be placed "in the cheek of the gate of the new building, in order to convey to posterity the antiquity of the CMteau St. Louis." The original castle was burned in 1834, but the CMteau Haldimand was used as a normal school in connection with Laval University until 1892, when it was pulled down to make room for the handsome hotel which now crowns the historic summit. The southwest wing of this "Chateau Frontenac" covers the site of Haldimand's castle, as well as that of the old powder magazine built for Fort St. Louis in the sixteenth century, the substantial casements of which were disclosed when the walls of Haldimand's wing were razed. The Maltese stone, now 344 \wm*t+ MEMORIALS IN CANADA inserted in the wall above the porte cochere of the hotel, rivals in historic interest the ckien d'or of the post-office. Montmorency House was a white elephant upon Haldimand's hands for many a year, as he could not sell it; but the royal situation found regal admirers in time. Prince William Henry fell in love with the place when he was in Quebec, and the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, who was in Canada from 1791 to 1794, made it his residence. The modern tourist has found the spot to his taste, and the sometime Haldimand House —Kent Lodge—is now a summer hotel, where all the world may go to be thrilled by the might of Montmorency's rushing waters that have lost none of their impetuosity since the days when Madame Riedesel wandered and wondered in their neighbourhood. The park at the corner of Dorchester and St. Urbain streets, Montreal, was a burying-ground one hundred years ago, and until the nineteenth century was more than half over, tombstones were still standing there. Two of these held in remembrance gentlemen who had been partners in the St. Maurice Forges, and previously, at different times, secretaries to their countryman, General Haldimand:— HONBLE CONRAD GUGY Captain 60th Regiment Member Legislative Council Lower Canada Died 10 April 1786. set: 56 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND JEAN FRANCOIS LOUIS GENEVAY Deputy Paymaster General for the District of Montreal Died 23 April 1803, set: 66 years. He was a native of Switzerland but served King George 44 years. Haldimand Hill still keeps fresh in Quebec city the memory of the governor, while a county of Ontario reminds the descendants of Loyalists who it was that planned their settlement. In the chapel of Henry VII, Westminster Abbey, there is a brass plate bearing a coat of arms in colours, with the circular motto, Tria Juncta in uno, on a shield supported by an Indian at either side, while at their feet is a scroll, Mitius Jubetur Ex- emplo, and beneath is the inscription:—"Du Chevalier FREDERICK HALDIMAND, General et Colonel d'un Regiment d'Infanterie au Service de sa Mqjeste; cy-devant General Commandant en chef dans UAmerique Septentrionale; Gouverneur de la Province de Quebec; Inspecteur General des Troupes dans les Isles Occidentales, et Chevalier du trds honorable Ordre du BAIN: Installe le 19me Jour de May MDCCLXXXVIII." This is a small reminder to Englishmen of the man who saved Canada for the empire. Had he been British born or bred, had he been a Frenchman and won back New France to Old, had he even belonged to the revolutionary party in the United States, he would now be revered as a patriot somewhere in the world, but love of coun- 346 L KJ HIS SERVICE try was not the stimulating motive in his public career. With no family of his own to spur him on either to gratify ambition or to make a fortune, Haldimand lived for others if ever man did. Art for art's sake is its own reward, but work for work's sake is seldom so eminently satisfying, unless one is trying to live down a private grief, and there was nothing of that sort in the general's life, so far as can be discovered. His heart was given to Switzerland, but as a soldier of fortune in foreign service he surpassed in devotion to his chosen profession the majority of those who were fighting for their own country. His zeal for the interests of King George exceeded that of His Majesty's native-born subjects. Duty was the key-note of his conduct, and in the doing of it he was never daunted by difficulties that had staggered many a one animated by the variable glow of patriotism. A pessimist concerning the future of Canada, he yet accomplished more for the firm establishment of that future than any one of her optimistic governors. Modern Canadian historians state that no events of consequence occurred during Haldimand's rule, but to him belongs the credit that they did not occur. | "Happy the country that has no history." A disaffected province, a weak colonial minister, called for a strong man, able to use strong measures on his own responsibility. Indian ferocity needed a restraining hand, but Indian rights must be 347 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND respected. The Vermont negotiations would have belittled Great Britain, if not conducted with honour and dignity, while the homeless Loyalists appealed to sympathy that had to be tempered with the nicest judgment. The manner in which Frederick Haldimand fulfilled all these requirements entitles him to a greater meed of imperial gratitude than he has yet received, and to a far higher place than has yet been accorded him among the makers of Canada. %M 348 INDEX Allen, General Ethan, communicates with British, 200-3; writes Schuy ler, 209; his correspondence with Haldimand, 213, 216; proposed signer of a treaty with Great Britain, 214; interviewed by a Loyalist, 215; true to Vermont only, 217 Allen, Colonel Ira, Vermont commissioner in British negotiations, 202, 204; suspected of double dealing, 205, 206, 207, 209, 211, 212; upheld by Vermont council of state, 210; proposes secret treaty with England, 214; true to Vermont only, 217 Amherst, General Sir Jeffrey, afterwards Lord, succeeds Abercromby, 21; erects Fort George, 22; builds forts and fleets on Lake Champlain, 25, 28; praises Haldimand's forbearance at Niagara, 27; at Oswego, 34, 35; receives surrender at Montreal, 38, 39; commands at New York, 40, 41, 42, 47, 49; retires, 53; corresponds with Haldimand, 82, 88,103; Haldimand's intercourse with in England, 105, 311, 325, 326, 332, 337, 339 Arnold, Colonel Benedict, 112,127, 227, 276, 281 B Barrinoton, Lord, 83, 107, 113, 329 Bouquet, Henry, Brigadier-General, early friend of Haldimand, 5, 6; in Swiss Guards at the Hague, 8, 9; colonel. in Royal American Regiment, 12-16; at Fort Pitt, 40; victorious at Bushy Run, promoted and transferred to Pensacola, where he dies, 58,62, 63; certain of his letters destroyed, 338 Boston, tea party at, 84; its port closed, 85; Gage in, 96-98; Haldimand's connection with, 103, 105, 107, 108, 121 Brant, Joseph, Indian chief, 163-6, 169, 170, 258, 300, 308, 327 Bude', General de, letters of Haldimand to, 116, 117, 119, 191, 222 Burgoyne, General, supersedes Carleton, 112; his disastrous campaign, 113, 126; Hamilton's expedition compared to his, 168 Butler, Colonel John, 151,154,155, 170, 172, 256, 327 Carleton, General Sir Gut, leases St. Maurice Forges, 62; tries to enlist Canadian militia, 111; his quarrel with Germaine, 113 ; Haldimand's opinion of, 119 ; at siege of Quebec, 121, 187 ; Captain Schank writes to, 159; raises Loyalist corps, 253 ; proposal to have him supersede Haldimand at Quebec, 188, 189 ; does so, 314; meets Haldimand in London, 330, 331; (See also Lord Dorchester) Carleton, Major, 149, 194, 280, 281 Caughnawagas, the, 130, 156, 189 Champlain Lake, Canada to be attacked by way of, 34; trouble among settlers on, 89, 197; guarding against invasion from, 125, 133, 134, 137, 149; messen- 349 fSW.fJSkW SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Champlain Lake—Continued gers intercepted on, 129; forts taken on, 198; Vermont negotiations held upon, 204; fear of rebel approach by, 208, 216; Ethan Allen offers to meet Haldimand upon, 214; Loyalists on shores of, 250 Chittenden, Thomas, 201, 202, 212, 214, 215 Clergy, Canadian, 42, 44, 52; change of views in, 128, 174; Haldimand's resolution with regard to, 180; French priests not wanted in Canada, 181,182; their interest in the establishment of public library, 191; the Protestant, 235, 236 ; Roman Catholic, alarmed at inroad of Loyalists, 264 Clinton, Sir Henry, 8 (note), 131, 188, 199, 200, 207, 208, 211, 212, 280, 330 Congress, United States, meets at Concord, 102; rumour of French and Spanish treaty with, 124; its designs against Canada, 129,130, 132; its attitude towards Vermont, 198, 199, 201-209, 211, 214-216; defeat of its troops celebrated in Quebec, 223; its interest and that of army opposed, 225; passes laws against Loyalists, 252; sends ambassador to Canada, 259 ; is slow to fulfil treaty, 260; addresses Canadians, 276; possible ruler of Canada, 319 Cornwallis, General, 211, 212, 297 Corve'es, during French rule, 122; transporting provisions to upper posts, 140; complaint against Haldimand for, 182, 291 ; Mac- Lean asks for decrease of, 306 Council, legislative, greets Haldimand on his arrival, 117; composition of, 175 ; its power said to be dependent upon the Quebec Act, 188 ; a member of it upholds Du Calvet, 287; sees Haldimand depart, 309 ; change of membership at change of governor, 314 350 Cramahe, Lieutenant-Governor,lll, 224, 313 Creeks, the, war with, 69; characterized, 70; their raids in Georgia, 91; Gage's opinion of, 98 Crown Point, 17, 28, 90, 125, 137, 211 De Peyster, Major, 146,158, 161, 260, 314 Detroit, 137, 145, 146, 153, 158, 161, 163, 167, 168, 260, 262, 332 Dorchester, Lord, Governor-General of Canada, 314, 315 (note), 331, 332; (See also Sir Guy Carleton) Du Calvet, Pierre, imprisoned by Haldimand, 279, 280; evidence against him, 281; his character, • 282-284, 290; his lawsuit against Haldimand, 283, 310; his book, 284-289; upheld by Maseres, 290; as a patriot, 291, 292; blames Mabane, 305 Five Nations, the, allies of the British, 148; their rights respected, 166; (See also Iroquois and Six Nations) Florida, under British rule, 64-82; Haldimand comes north from, 83, 87; officers left there, 90; suggested closing of ports to, 104; Haldimand's career there, 121; proposed disposition of, 124; Haldimand's property in, 316 French Canadians, characterized, 42, 51, 52, 161, 173, 221 ; enlistment of, 55-57,139; object to introduction of English civil law, 59, 60; contented with new rulers, 53, 79; favoured by Quebec Act, 101, 173; disinclination to serve in revolutionary war, 111, 126-128 ; costume of, 114, 115, 240, 241; prisoners in Albany take up arms for congress, 130; fear of them INDEX French Canadians—Continued communicating with rebels, 134, 136, 140, 174, 297 ; restricted in disposal of produce, 177; appealed to by D'Estaing, 123; Haldimand's attitude towards, 119, 180, 182, 264, 273, 283; their attitude to the Loyalists, 264, 271; their opinion of Haldimand, 274; disloyalty to England, 189, 275, 280; addressed by congress, 276; Mac- Lean pleads for, 306; attempt to anglify, 315 Frontier Raids, 13, 16, 38, 89,149, 156, 157, 169-172, 187, 210, 250 Gage, General, at Ticonderoga, 19 ; writes to Haldimand, 22, 23; commands at Oswego, 28, 29 ; at Albany, 31,33; at Montreal, 40, 41 ; his opinion of the Cross de St. Louis wearers, 52; commander- i n-ch ief at New York, 53, 57, - 68,60,61,66,68,70,72,73,77,79- 81; leaves for England, 83; letter of Haldimand to, 89; his letter to Haldimand, 94, 95 (note); in Boston, 96-98, 101, 105, 108, 121; superseded by Howe, 110; Indian policy of, 147; receives letter from Washington, 249; his death, 335 Garneau, F. X., French Canadian historian, quoted, 69 ; approves of General Murray, 60; gives some credit to Haldimand, 291, 292 Gazette, Quebec, first newspaper in Canada, 190 Gazette, Montreal, founding of, 276 Germaine, Lord George, English colonial secretary, 107; characterized, 112, 113, 125, 132; Haldimand's earliest despatches to, 132-143, 153; Haldimand re- ?roved by, 155, 156; letters of laldimand to, 164-166, 294; Hamilton writes directly to, 167; his farther correspondence with Haldimand, 170, 176, 178; directs Clinton and Haldimand to win over Vermont, 199; Haldimand reports progress to, 206, 208; his replies to Haldimand, 216, 275 German troops in Canada, the Brunswick legion, 114, 126, 136, 141, 265, 293, 296, 298 H Habeas Corpus Act, Haldimand's suspension of, 275; Canadian demand for, 291 Haldeman, the family in the United States, 343 Haldimand, Anthony Francis, nephew of Sir Frederick, 72, 88, 106, 311, 312, 332, 338, 341, 342 Haldimand, Bertrand, nephew of Sir Frederick, 311, 340 Haldimand Collection of documents, 319, 338 Haldimand, Francois-Louis, brother of Sir Frederick, 3; his grandson, 312; his daughters, 343 Haldimand, Frederick, nephew of Sir Frederick, 17, 49, 50, 61, 72, 294 Haldimand, General Sir Frederick, birth, 3; early military service, 4-8; enters British army, 9; goes to America, 10; recruits for Royal American Regiment, 11-13; wounded at Ticonderoga, 21; in command at Fort Edward, 23-25; victorious at Oswego, 26; takes possession of Montreal, 38; attends to shipment of troops to France, 39; military governor of West Florida, 65-81; commander-in-chief at New Vork, 83-99; with Gage in Boston, 102- 105; in London, 105, 106; sails for Canada as governor-general, 116; arrives in Quebec, 117; formal reception at Montreal, 119; his preparations for defence 851 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Haldimand, General Sir Frederick —Continued of province, 124-131; his despatch to Germaine, 132-143; correspondence with commanders at upper posts, 146,147,154,158- 162; improves mail service with England, 152; accused of opening private letters, 155 ; extracts of his letters to Germaine, 128, 153, 156, 164-166 ; his opinion of Hamilton's expedition to the Wabash, 168; of frontier raids, 169, 170; of the Quebec Act, 173; his trouble with councillors, 175- 178; his resolutions on taking office, 179; has Quebec citadel rebuilt, 183; causes first canals on St. Lawrence to be constructed, 184-186; proposes to resign, 189 ; has census of the province taken, 190; starts first public library in Canada, 190, 191 ; his official proclamations, 192, 193; he is promoted, 42, 61, 83, 107, 113, 313; negotiates with Vermont leaders, 199-217; his social life in Quebec, 222, 223, 298, 300; his views on the smallpox question, 230; his treatment of rebel prisoners, 250; enlists Loyalist corps, 253; his care for Tory refugees in Canada, 138, 254, 255, 258, 266; his refusal to yield the upper posts to congress, 260, 261; assists the North West Company, 261, 262; sends settlers to Upper Canada, 264, 270; imprisons prominent Canadians suspected of intercourse with the rebels, 273-282; Du Calvet's attack upon him, 283-292; his house at Montmorency, 301, 331, 345; sails for England, 309; knighted, 313, 332; quotations from his diary, 321-340; his will, 340-343; tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey, 346 Haldimand, Henry, nephew of Sir Frederick, 311, 312 352 Haldimand, Honnete Gaspard, grandfather of Sir Frederick, 2, 17, 72, 311 Haldimand, Jean-Abraham, brother of Sir Frederick, 2, 17, 72, 311 Haldimand, Jean-Lois, uncle of Sir Frederick, 2, 4 Haldimand, Justine, sister of Sir Frederick, 3, 338 Haldimand, Louis, nephew of Sir Frederick, 88, 109, 110, 294, 312 Haldimand, Pierre, nephew of Sir Frederick, 72, 111, 112, 294 Hamilton, Henry, lieutenant-governor at Detroit, his foolhardy expedition to the Wabash, 167- 169; lieutenant-governor at Quebec, 314 Hazen, Haun, or Hazon, Moses or Moss, rebel spy, 130, 132 Howe, General Sir William, 110,268 Hutcheson, Major, 108-110,112,294 I Indians, their lands secured by treaty, 12; allies of the French, 13, 16, 21; rangers touchy as, 23; come to help of Pouchot at Niagara, 25; Sir William Johnson's following of, 28, 29; traders forbidden to sell rum to, 32; fears of an uprising among, 55; in Florida, 66, 71, 73; Haldimand's treatment of, 89, 91-93, 131, 147, 150, 153, 259, 347; uncertain allies, 126, 137, 170; rebels tampering with, 127, 128, 134, 136; like British posts and presents, 145, 146, 157, 266; not consulted at treaty-making, 256, 257; British control of, 260; attempt to pervert from British allegiance, 279; American cruelty towards, 307; (See also Caughna- wagas, Creeks, Iroquois, Mohawks, Oneidas, Six Nations) Iroquois, the, 43,151; (See also Five or Six Natious, Mohawks, Oneidas) Isle aux Noix, 125; 133, 204, 250 INDEX Jesuits, their mission at Three Rivers, 43; an unworthy member of the order, 48 ; engage in the ginseng trade, 148; suspected of sympathy with rebels, 130, 181; their vestibule turned into a theatre, 306, 307 Johnson, Colonel Guy, 155, 156 Johnson, Sir John, 156, 231, 237, 296,308 Johnson, Sir William, takes possession of Niagara, 26, 27 ; wants to attack La Galette, 28; retires for the winter, 29; leaves Oswego for Montreal under Amherst, 36; his opinion on the enlistment of Canadian corps, 67; his Indian widow, 164; Ids death a national loss, 155; his son, Sir John, 156; references to him, 121, 157, 257 King's Royal Regiment, of New York, formation of, 156; a colonel in, 201; disbanded, 256 Kingston (See Cataraqui) La Corns de St. Luc, 26, 40 Lafayette, Marquis de, 128, 278 Laterriere, Doctor, inspector of Forges at Three Rivers, his memoirs, 278; his defence of Du Calvet, 284, 287; his opinion of Haldimand, 277, 293 Le'vis, General de, 34, 36-39, 122 Library, first public, in Canada, 190, 191 Loyalists, the, coming into Canada, 125; houses being built for, 138, 182; military service of, 136, 137, 263, 268; at Niagara, 152; helping to build Quebec citadel, 183; mixed up in the Vermont affair, 200, 202, 206; at Machiche, 236; at Cataraqui, 236; rebel treatment of, 249-252; Haldi mand's care of, 254, 255, 266; the Indians as, 258; at Michillimakinak, 259; congress unrelenting towards, 260 ; lands allotted to, 263, 264; the trouble they gave Haldimand, 267-270, 306, 348 M Mabane, Doctor Adam, 178, 300, 304, 305, 314, 315 (note), 332, 340,342 MacLean, Brigadier Allan, 111, 112, 162, 171 (note), 279, 280, 285,294, 306-311, 327 Martial law, 41, 43; abolished in Canada, 59; better than civil rule in Florida, 65; and at Vincennes, 93; its severity in the case of soldiers, 93; not severely enforced by Haldimand, 275 Maseres, Baron Francis, 290, 291, 305, 310, 315 (note} Mathews, Major, Haldimand's secretary, 245, 286, 305, 309, 314, 331, 332, 342 Mesplet, Fleury, publisher of first books in Montreal, 276, 277 Michillimakinak, situation of fort, 145, 153; quarrel between com-; manders there and at Detroit, 158; the great expense of maintaining, 161; transporting provisions to, 163; talk of settling Loyalists near, 259; not to be yielded to congress, 260; another site chosen, 262 Mohawks, the, 84, 148, 258, 259, 266 Montcalm, General, at Carillon, 18; unable to take advantage of his victory there, 22 ; had destroyed fort at Oswego, 25; a forged letter of, 49 ; his memory green with Canadians, 122; mentioned by D'Estaing, 123 Montgomery, General Richard, 111, 112, 127 Montreal, Levis still holds out at, 353 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Montreal—Continued 34; Amherst on his way to surround, 36; English march there from Lachine, 37; Haldimand takes possession of, 39; he stays there with Gage, 40; martial law at, 41; Haldimand improves the highway between it and Quebec, 45,46; change of command at, 53; enlistment of Canadian troops in, 55, 56; difficulties of government in, 60; Tryon at, 91; surrenders to rebels, 111; trade with upper lakes, 124, 140; rebel spies in, 130, 274, 278; Sulpician priests from Paris deported from, 181; Haldimand visits, 186 ; the census of taken, 190; postal service in, 193; its people present loyal addresses, 225; schools of, , 233, 235, 236; rebel prisoners at, 187, 250; North West Company founded at, 261 ; Indians in, 266; first printing press of, 276; the Riedesels at, 300; Mac- Lean at, 306; old burying-ground in, 345 Murray, General James, in command at Quebec, 34; advancing against Montreal, 36; governor at Quebec, 41-43, 49, 50; governor-general of Canada, 53 N New Orleans, 64, 73, 77, 78, 80, 81 New York City, Amherst commands at, 41 ; Gage in command, 53 ; Haldimand in command, 1, 83, 86,87, 90, 96,102,121; rioting in, 91, 95, 97 ; Haldimand's property in, 103, 107; Haldimand's communication with, 129 ; animosity against British in, 252 New York, colony or State of, proposal to build Florida barracks there, 79 ; slow in joining revolt, 98, 101; Vermont's dispute with, 198, 203, 209, 215, 217 ; Indians migrate from, 258 354 Niagara, Fort, in French hands, 25; taken by British, 26; garrison at, 31, 32; its late commander, 36 ; shipment of goods to, 124, 136, 150, 163; its position, 145; Indians at, 148, 171, 256; expeditions in its defence, 151,153; Loyalists take refuge there, 152, 250; MacLean in command at, 162, 307, 308; peculation of a firm of traders at, 166; Haldimand's refusal to relinquish, 260 North, Lord, 92, 97, 259, 264, 265 O Oneidas, the, one of the Six Nations, 148, 153 Oswego River, British post at mouth of, 25; battle there, 26, 40,121; Haldimand returns there from Niagara, 27; Indians about, 28; derivation of name, 32; Amherst expected at, 33 ; he arrives, 34, 35 ; fort to be re-established, 142; fear of rebels taking post there, 150; British occupy site once more, 157 ; Loyalists there, 250 ; fort to be held after peace, 260 Pensacola, Florida, Bouquet at, 58, 63 ; Haldimand arrives there, 65; his labours to improve, 67, 68, 70 ; watching the Spaniards from, 77; troops removed from, 78; ordered back there, 79, 80; barracks being built at, 81, 90; Haldimand's house there, 104,316 Pitt, Fort, 16, 26, 40, 90 Pontiac, uprising of, 55, 57, 259 Postal service, Haldimand improves the, 131; its inefficiency, 129, 193, 312 Prevost, General Augustin, 294, 315, 316, 330, 338 Quebec Act, extends bounds of TrJmLjm. JEaS3§SM INDEX Quebec Act—Continued province, 93; objections to in New England, 101; its repeal wanted, 174, 175, 179, 180, 264; not wanted, 173, 188; Haldimand's opinion of, 195, 273 Quebec city, Wolfe before, 25; Amherst delays.en route to, 29 ; Murray in, 34, 41; road between it and Montreal, 45, 46; its connection with Three Rivers, 47,49; enlistment in, 55,66; Haldimand's arrival at, 117; Indians brought to, 152; the citadel of, 183; prisons in, 187 ; defence of, 188 ; its census taken, 190; old customs of, 192, 221-224; the Ried- esels at, 220, 900-304; education in, 233-236; food supply of, 239; Nelson at, 244; rebel sympathizers in, 279 ; Du Calvet at, 286, 287; Haldimand's life at, 298 ; he sails from, 310; a street called after Haldimand there, 346 R Recollets, priests of the order of, 48, 187, 222, 286, 289 Riedesel, Baron de, 114, 239, 296- 299,302 Riedesel, Baroness de, 219, 220, 239, 299-304, 345 Royal American Regiment, afterwards 60th Foot, Haldimand lieutenant-colonel in, 1, 9, 11 ; recruiting for, 12; George Washington suggests change of uniform for, 16; Haldimand exchanges from 2nd to 4th Battalion of, 17 ; at Oswego, 29 ; at Montreal, 50; discipline in, 94; one of Haldimand s secretaries belonged to, 305 ; Haldimand made colonel-commandant of 2nd Battalion, 83; of 1st Battalion, 313 Royal Highland Emigrants, or 84th Regiment, raised for defence of Quebec, 111, 112, 306; dis banded, 255; as settlers, 262, 265 ; Du Calvet arrested by captain of, 285 S St. Johns, Quebec, fortified, 125, 130,133; people of, pay a schoolmaster, 235 St. Leger, Colonel Barry, 211, 256, 295, 309, 314 St. Louis, Chateau of, governor's residence at Quebec, 169, 222, 304, 314; balls at, 223; wing built to it by Haldimand, 344 St. Maurice Forges, 46-48, 54, 62, 278, 346 Schank, Captain, 125, 159, 236, 237, 288, 289, 309, 313 Schuyler, General, 205, 206, 209, 260, 257, 279 Sherwood, Captain, British commissioner in Vermont negotiations, 202, 204, 267 Sinclair, Lieutenant-Governor, 158, 161, 163 Six Nations, or Five Nations, the, too few in number to be important as allies, 126; post at Oswego must be re-established for benefit of, 142; their raid on Wyoming, 151; a deputation held at Quebec to see English fleet, 152; Molly Brant's influence with, 155; their rights protected by Haldimand, 166; deputation of, wait on MacLean at Niagara, 171; threatened by Schuyler, 257; settled on the Grand River, 258; some remain at Bay of Quinte, 265 , (See also Iroquois, Mohawks, and Oneidas) Sorel, 125, 132, 135, 183, 255, 256, 269, 269, 274, 296, 298 Spaniards, in Florida, 63-65; at New Orleans, 78, 80; troublesome neighbours, 70, 77; on the Wabash, 167 ; Rodney's victory over, 189 Sydney, Lord, British minister, 284, 310, 315 (note), 322, 326,327,337 355 SIR FREDERICK HALDIMAND Taxing American colonists, Loudoun's letter to Pitt about, 11; colonial objections to, 58 ; Haldimand's opinion of, 84; London feeling against, 86 Taylor, Brigadier, 65, 69, 75 Three Rivers, Haldimand military governor at, 1, 42-51; referred to, 56, 60-62, 64, 65, 147, 179, 190, 229, 231, 233, 235, 237, 254, 280, 290, 293 Townshend, Lord, British minister, 184; Haldimand's letter to, 188 Tryon, Governor, 89, 91, 197 Trytorrens, or Traytorrens, Marie Madelaine de, Haldimand's mother, 2; a correspondent of the same name, 315 Twiss, Captain, 183-186, 327 Vaudreuil, the last French governor-general of Canada, 36, 38, 39 Vermont, aspires to be a State, 197; makes its own declaration of independence, 198 ; British commanders told to attempt retention of, 199; Haldimand's opinion of the people of, 199, 200, 208 ; its negotiations with the British, 201- 217; emissaries reappear as Loyalists, 266 Vincennes, Post, on the Wabash, 92, 93, 167, 168, 314 W Wallace, Hugh, Haldimand's New York agent, 61, 74, 77, 108 Washington, George, compared with Haldimand in personal appearance, 15 ; in character, 250; advises change in British uniforms, 16; occupies Haldimand's house on Richmond Hill, 104; his headquarters at Cambridge, 110 ; objects to his French allies invading Canada, 123 ; small size of his army, 126, 253; Haldimand demands Hamilton's release from, 169; his disapproval of Vermont, 205, 216 ; Schuyler reports to, 206 ; writes to Chittenden, 212; wants to keep up exchange of prisoners through Vermont, 215 ; letter to his aide intercepted in Canada, 225; writes to Gage, 249; his advice to Loyalists, 250; Riedesel's opinion of his tactics, 298; Pillon's correspondence with, 278 Wolfe, General, before Quebec, 25, 28, 34 ; Amherst compared with, 35 ; mentioned, 62, 121 Yorke, Sir Joseph, 9, 10, 327, 337 Yverdun, early home of Haldimand, 2, 3; he revisits, 113, 116; dies there, 340; its institutions remembered in his will, 342 356
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. FC411.H34 M23 1909
Haldimand, Frederick, Sir, 1718-1791
Sir Frederick Haldimand
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