Title

Chapter 2

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=297986

page

26-49

Bibliographic Citation

Recollections of the War of 1812 / William Dunlop.

10168363

Recollections of the War of 1812 / William Dunlop.

Type

Text

extracted text

26

RECOLLECTIONS OF

no platonisin in their souls, as "The Doctor's
Sylph."
From the end of the first few weeks that I remained here my patients gradually began to
diminish,—some died, and these I buried,—some
recovered by the remedies employed, or spite of
them, and these I forwarded or carried with me
to join the Regiment,—and others who from loss
of limbs or of the use of them, might be considered as permanently rendered "hors de combat,"
I sent by easy stages to Montreal General Hospital, thence in the spring to be removed to England as occasion offered, thence to enjoy the honours and emoluments of a Chelsea Pension. The
few that remained unfit to be removed I committed to the charge of an Hospital Mate, and proceeded with all convenient speed to join the headquarters of my Regiment.

27

THE AMERICAN WAR

CHAPTER II.
" Cockneys of London, Muscadines of Paris,
I pray you ponder, what a pastime war is."

—Byron.

I joined my regiment at Fort Wellington, and
a fine jovial unsophisticated set of "wild tremendous Irishmen" I found my brother officers to be.
To do them justice (and I was upwards of four
years with them) a more honest-hearted set of
fellows never met round a mess table. No private
family ever lived in more concord or unanimity
than did "Our Mess."
Irishmen though they mostly were, they never
quarrelled among themselves. They sometimes
fought, to be sure, with strangers, but never in
the Regiment, though we rarely went to bed
without a respectable quorum of them getting a
leetle to the lee side of sobriety.
"Tempora mutantur," says Horace, but I very
much doubt if "nos" (that is such as are alive of
'nos') "mutamur in illis." The Army is very
different from what it was in my day—sadly
changed indeed! It will hardly be believed, but
I have dined with officers who, after drinking a
few glasses of wine, called for their coffee. If
Waterloo was to fight over again, no rational

NIAGARA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY

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man can suppose that we would gain it after
such symptoms of degeneracy. Such lady-like
gentlemen would certainly take out vinaigrettes
and scream at a charge of the Old Guard, and be
horrified at the sight of a set of grim-looking
Frenchmen, all grin and gash, whisker and moustache.
I was not, however, allowed to enjoy the festivities of Fort Wellington, such as they were.
The enemy being extended along the line of the
right bank of the St. Lawrence, and the Lake of
the Thousand Islands, it was necessary that we
also should extend and occupy points that might
enable us to keep up a communication, and maintain a correspondence with our rear. Besides it
was considered highly expedient and necessary,
that small bodies of the line should be stationed
in defensible positions, to form a nucleus, in case
of invasion, for the Indians and Militia to rally
round and form upon. Accordingly, a garrison
had to be maintained in a block-house in the
woods of Gananoque, between Brockville and
Kingston, and our Grenadier Company being ordered for that service, I was detached to accompany them. A block-house is a most convenient
and easily constructed fort in a new country.
The lower story is strongly built of stone, and
the upper, which overhangs it about eighteen
inches, (so that you can fire from above along
the wall without being exposed,) is built of logs
about a foot square. Both stories are pierced
with loop-holes for musquetry, and in the upper
are four portholes, to which are fitted four 24-

pounder carronades, mounted naval fashion, the

28

whole being surrounded with a strong loop-holed
and flanked stoccade, and this makes a very fair
protection for an inferior force, against a superior who are unprovided with a battering train,
which of course in a few rounds would knock it
to splinters.
Except in the expectation of a sudden attack,
the officers were permitted to sleep out of the
block-house, and a small unfinished house was
taken for their residence. The captain and senior
lieutenant being, as Bardolph hath it, better accommodated than with wives, we, that is the
junior lieutenant and myself, gave up our share
of the quarters to them, and established ourselves in what had been a blacksmith's shop, for
our winter quarters. In the ante-room to this
enviable abode, a jobbing tailor had formed his
shop-board, and his rags and shapings proved
highly useful in caulking its seams against the
wind. By means of a roaring fire kept up on the
forge, and a stove in the outer room, we managed to keep ourselves tolerably comfortable
during an unusually rigorous winter ; and it being on the road side, and a halting station in
the woods, we were often visited by friends coming or going, who partook with great goiit of our
frozen beef—which had to be cut into steaks with
a hand-saw. Being on the banks of a fine stream,
we never were at loss for ducks, and in the surrounding pine woods the partridges were abundant, and the Indians brought us venison in exchange for ruin, so that we had at least a plenti-

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f
ful, if not an elegant table, and we were enabled
to pass the winter nights as pleasantly over our
ration rum as ever I did in a place with much
more splendid "appliances and means to boot."
We passed the remainder of the winter as officers are obliged to do in country quarters. We
shot, we lounged, we walked and did all the flirtation that the neighborhood of a mill, a shop, a
tavern, with two farm houses within a reasonable forenoon's walk, could afford. We were deprived, however, of the luxury of spitting over a
bridge, which Dr. Johnston says is the principal
amusement of officers in country quarters, for
though we had a bridge close at hand, the stream
beneath it was frozen. Early in spring we were
relieved by two companies of another Regiment,
and having received orders to join, we joined accordingly.
I had the good fortune to be quartered with
two companies of my Regiment at the then insignificant village of Cornwall. It is now a flourishing town, and sends a Member to the Provincial Parliament, though it then did not contain
more than twenty houses. Here we found ourselves in very agreeable society, composed principally of old officers of the revolutionary war,
who had obtained grants of land in this neigh-.
bourhood, and had settled down, as we say in this
part of the country and its neighbourhood, with
their families. An affectation of style, and set
entertainments that follow so rapidly the footsteps of wealth, were then and there unknown,
and we immediately became on the best possible

t

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terms with the highest circles (for these exist hi
all societies, and the smaller the society, the
more distinctly is the circle defined). We walked
into their houses as if they had been our own,
and no apology was offered, though these were
found in such a litter as washing or scrubbing
day necessarily implied. The old gentlemen when
in town came to Our Mess, and when they had
imbibed a sufficient quantity of port, they regaled
us with toughish yarns of their military doings
during the revolutionary war. And when a teadrinking party called a sufficient number of the
aristocracy together, an extemporaneous dance
was got up, a muffled drum and fife furnishing
the orchestra.
Towards the end of June our two companies
got the route to join headquarters, the Regiment
being ordered to the Niagara frontier. But
though the troops were relieved, I was not, but
ordered to remain till some one should arrive to
fill my place, and in the interval between that
and my departure a Field Officer, who was sent
to command the Militia of the district, arrived.
He was an old acquaintance of mine, and a real
good fellow. He had highly distinguished himself
during the war, particularly at the storming of
Ogdensburg, where he commanded. He was of
Highland extraction, and though he had not the
misfortune to be born in that country, he had,
by means of the instructions of a Celtic moonshee, (as they say in Bengal,) acquired enough of
their language to hammer out a translation of a
verse or two of the Gaelic Bible, with nearly as

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much facility as a boy in the first year of the
Grammar School would an equal quantity of his
Cordery. To all these good gifts he added the
advantage of being of the Catholic persuasion,
which rendered him the most proper person that
could have been selected to take charge of a district the chief part of whose Militia were Highlanders, Catholics, and soldiers, or the sons of
soldiers.
I have never met with him since the end of the
war, though I might have seen him in Edinburgh
at the King's visit ; but who could be expected
to recognize a respectable Field Officer of Light
Infantry, masquerading, disguised for the first
time in his life in a kilt, and forming a joint in
the tail of the chief of his barbarous clan ?
It struck this gentleman that supplies of fresh
provisions might be got from the American side,
and accordingly he sent emissaries over the river,
and the result justified the correctness of his
views.
While sitting after dinner one day tete a tete
with the Colonel, his servant announced that a
gentleman wanted to see him. As the word gentleman on this side of the Atlantic conveys no
idea of either high birth or high breeding}, nor
even of a clean shirt, or a whole coat, my friend
demanded what kind of a gentleman,—as, like a
sensible man as he was, he did not wish to be
interrupted in the pleasant occupation of discussing his wine and listening to my agreeable
conversation, by a gentleman who possibly might
ask him if he wished to buy any eggs, as many

species of the genus gentleman on this side of the
herring pond might possibly deem a good and
sufficient reason for intruding on his privacy.
His servant said he believed he must be a kind
of Yankee gentleman, for he wore his hat in the
parlor, and spit on the carpet. The causa scientiae, as the lawyers say, seemed conclusive to
my Commandant, for he was ordered to be admitted, and the Colonel, telling me that he suspected this must be one of his beef customers, requested I would not leave the room, as he wish.
ed a witness to the bargain he was about to
make.
Accordingly, there entered a tall, good-looking,
middle-aged man, dressed in a blue something,
that might have been a cross between a surtout
and a great coat. He was invited to sit down,
and fill his glass, when the following dialogue
took place :
Yankee.—I'm Major of Vermont State,
and I would like to speak to the Colonel in private, I guess, on particular business.
Colonel.—Anything you may have to say to
me, Sir, may be said with perfect safety in presence of this gentleman.
Major.—I'm a little in the smuggling line, I
reckon.
Colonel.—Aye, and pray what have you smuggled ?
Major.—Kettle, (cattle,) I reckon. I heerd that
the Colonel wanted some very bad, so I just
brought a hundred on 'em across at St. Regis, as
fine critters, Colonel, as ever had hair on 'em.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF

So I drove them right up; the Colonel can look
at 'em hisself—they are right at the door here.
Colonel.—Well, what price do you ask for
them?
Major.—Well, Colonel I expect about the same
as other folks gets, I conclude.
Colonel.—That is but reasonable, and you shall
have it.
The Commissary of the Post was sent for, and
having been previously warned not to be very
scrupulous in inspecting the drove, as it was of
infinitely more importance to get the army supplied than to obtain them at the very lowest rate
per head, he soon returned with a bag of half
eagles, and paid the Major the sum demanded.
The latter, after carefully counting the coin, returned it into the canvas bag, and opening his
coat displayed inside the breast of it, a pocket
about the size of a haversack, into which he
dropped his treasure, and then deliberately buttoning it up from the bottom to the throat, he
filled and drank a glass of wine, to our good
healths ; adding, "Well, Colonel, I must say you
are a leetle the genteelest man to deal with ever
I met with, and I'll tell all my friends how handsome you behaved to me ; and/ I'm glad of it for
their sakes as well as my own, for jist as I was
fixing to start from St. Regis, my friend Colonel
arrived with three hundred head more.
The kettle arnt his'n ; they belong to his father,,
who is our Senator. They do say that it is
wrong to supply an innimy, and I think so too ;
but I don't call that man my innimy who buys

THE AMERICAN WAR

35

what I have to sell, and gives a genteel price for
it. We have worse innimies than you Britishers.
So I hope the Colonel will behave all the same
as well to them as he has done to me; but there
was no harm in having the first of the market,
you know, Colonel." So with a duck that was
intended for a bow, and a knowing grin that
that seemed to say, "It was just as safe to secure my money before giving you this piece of
information," he took his leave and departed, evidently much pleased with the success of his negotiation.
At this time the expense of carrying on the
war was enormous. Canada, so far from being
able to supply an army and navy with the provisions required, was (as a great many of her
effective population were employed in the transport of military and naval stores,) not fit to
supply her own wants, and it was essential to
secure supplies from wherever they could be got
soonest and cheapest. Troops acting on the Niagara frontier, I,000 miles from the ocean, were
fed with flour the produce of England, and pork
and beef from Cork, which, with the waste inseparable from a state of war, the expense and
accidents to which a long voyage expose them,
and the enormous cost of internal conveyance, at
least doubled the quantity required, and rendered the price of them at least ten times their original cost. Not only provisions, but every kind
of Military and Naval Stores, every bolt of canvas, every rope yarn, as welt as the heavier articles of guns, shot, cables, anchors, and all the

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numerous etceteras for furnishing a large squadron, arming forts, supplying arms for the militia
and the line, had to be brought from Montreal
to Kingston, a distance of nearly 20o miles, by
land in winter, and in summer by flat-bottomed
boats, which had to tow up the rapids, and sail
up the still parts of the river, (in many places
not a mile in breadth, between the British and
American shores,) exposed to the shot of the
enemy without any protection ; for with the
small body of troops we had in the country, it
was utterly impossible that we could detach a
force sufficient to protect the numerous brigades
of boats that were daily proceeding up the river,
and we must have been utterly undone, had not
the ignorance and inertness of the enemy saved
us. Had they stationed four field guns, covered
by a corps of riflemen, on the banks of the St.
Lawrence, they could have cut off our supplies
without risking one man. As it was we had only
to station a small party at every fifty miles, to
be ready to act in case of alarm ; but fortunately for us, they rarely or never troubled us. If
they had done so with any kind of spirit, we
must have abandoned tipper Canada, Kingston
and the fleet on Ontario included, and leaving it
to its fate, confined ourselves to the defence of
such part of the Lower Province as came within
the range of our own empire, the sea.
I would do gross injustice to my reader, no
less than to myself, were I to quit Cornwall
without mentioning a most worthy personage,
who, though in a humble station, was one of the

best and most original characters I ever met
with in my progress through life. This was no
other than my worthy hostess, of the principal
log hotel, Peggy Bruce. If you could conceive
Meg Dodds an Irish instead of a Scotch woman,
you would have a lively conception of Peggy.
She possessed all the virtues of her prototype, all
her culinary talents, all her caprice with guests
she did not take a fancy for, and all powers, offensive or defensive, by tongue or broom, as the
case in hand rendered the one or the other more
expedient.
Peggy was the daughter of a respectable Irish
farmer, and had made a runaway match with a
handsome young Scotch sergeant. She had accompanied her husband through the various campaigns of the revolutionary war, and at the
peace, his regiment being disbanded, they set up
a small public house, which, when I knew her as
a widow, she still kept. The sign was a long
board, decorated by a very formidable likeness of
St. Andrew at the one end, and St. Patrick at
the other, being the patron saints of the high
contracting parties over whose domicile they
presided, and the whole surrounded by a splendid
wreath of thistles and shamrocks.
Bred in the army, she still retained her old
military predeliction, and a scarlet coat was the
best recommendation to her good offices. Civilians of whatever rank she deemed an inferior
class of the human race, and it would have been
a hard task to have convinced her that the Lord

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RECOLLECTIONS OF

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Chancellor was equal in dignity or station to a
Captain of Dragoons.
It was my luck, (good or bad as the reader
may be inclined to determine,) to be a prodigious
favourite with the old lady; but even favour with
the ladies has its drawbacks and inconveniences,
and one of these with me was being dragged to
the bedside of every man, woman and child who
was taken ill in or about the village. At first I
remonstrated against my being appointed physician-extraordinary to the whole parish, with
which I was in no way connected ; but Peggy
found an argument which, as it seemed perfectly
satisfactory to herself, had to content me. "What
the d—1 does the king pay you for, if you are
not to attend to his subjects when they require
your assistance ?"
I once, and only once, outwitted her. She woke
me out of a sound sleep a little after midnight,
to go and see one of her patients. Having undergone great fatigue the day before, I felt very
unwilling to get up. At first I meditated a flat
refusal, but I could see with half a glance, that
she anticipated my objections, for I saw her eye
fix itself on a large ewer of water in the basin
stand, and I knew her too well for a moment to
suppose that she would hesitate to call in the
aid of the pure element to enforce her arguments.
So I feigned compliance, but pleaded the impossibility of my getting up, while there was a lady
in the room. This appeared only reasonable, so
she lit my candle and withdrew to the kitchen
fire, while I was at my toilet. Her back was no

sooner turned, than I rose, double-locked and
bolted the door, and retired again to rest, leaving her to storm in the passage, and ultimately
to knock up one of the village doctors, whose
skill she was well persuaded was immeasurably
inferior to any Army medical man who wore His
Majesty's uniform. But though I chuckled at my
success at the time, I had to be most wary how
I approached her, and many days elapsed before
I ventured to come within broom's length of her.
At last I appeased her wrath by promising never
"in like case to offend," and so obtained her forgiveness, and was once more taken into favour ;
but Peggy was too old a soldier to be taken in
twice, or to trust to the promise of a sleepy man
that he would get up. After this, when she required my services, she would listen to no apology on the score of modesty, but placing her lantern on the table, waited patiently till I was
dressed, when tucking up her gown through her
pocketholes and taking my arm, away we paddled through the mud in company.
After reaching the house of the patient, and
after the wife and daughters had been duly scolded for their neglect in not calling her in sooner,
we entered into consultation, which like many
other medical consultations, generally ended in a
difference of opinion. To a military surgeon,
much sooner than to any other surgeon,
there were certain great leading principles in the
healing art, to all impugning of which Peggy was
flint and adamant and when these were mooted
I much question if she would have succumbed to

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opr

even the Director General of the Army Medical
Board himself.
At the head of her medical dicta was that it
was essential to "support the strength." That
was to cram the patient with every kind of food
that by entreaty or importunity he could be prevailed upon to swallow, (a practice by the way
of more learned practitioners than Peggy.) A
hot bath with herbs infused in it was another
favourite remedy, and on this we were more at
one, for the bath would most likely do good, and
the herbs no harm. Her concluding act at the
breaking up of the consultation was generally to
dive into the recesses of a pair of pockets of the
size and shape of saddle bags, from which, among
other miscellaneous contents, would she fish up a
couple of bottles of wine which she deemed might
be useful to the patient. After we had finished
business I escorted the old lady home, where
there was always something comfortable kept
warm for supper, which when we had discussed
together, with something of a stiffish horn of hot
brandy and water, we departed to our respective
dormitories.
Peggy, like many of her country, possessed a
keen vein of sarcastic humor, which often made
her both feared and respected. A Colonel, as
good a man, and as brave a soldier as ever drew
a sword, but too much of a martinet to be a favourite with the militia of whom he was Inspecting Field Officer, received a command in a division that was then going on actual service. Peggy, who respected his military talents at least

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41

as much as she disliked his hauteur, meeting him
the day before his departure, addressed him with
—"Och ! Colonel dear, and are ye going to lave
us—sure there will be many a dry eye in the
town the day you quit it." When the American
Army, under Wilkinson, were coming down the
St. Lawrence, a company of Glengarry Militia
were placed at Cornwall to watch their movements, ajnd act as might be most expedient.
The Captain of the band was named John McDonald, a very good and highly respectable name,
but of no earthly use to distinguish a Glengarry
man, as there were some hundreds in that part
of the world—nor would the prefix of his military rank much mend the matter, as there are
probably some score Captain John McDonalds.
In this emergency therefore, a soubriquet becomes indispensable. This Captain John had in
his youth served in the revolutionary war as a
corporal, in the same brigade as Peggy's husband, therefore they were very old friends, and to
distinguish him from the clan she named him
When it was known
Captain Corporal John.
that the invading army had abandoned the attempt, and had crossed the river, the men, wisely
considering that their services were no longer required in Cornwall, and would be highly useful
on their farms, disbanded themselves during the
night without the formality of asking leave, so
that at morning parade only six appeared on the
ground. Such an unheard-of breach of military
discipline could not fail to excite the fierce indignation of the worthy veteran ; accordingly he

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OF

vented his wrath in every oath, Gaelic or English, within the range of his vocabulary. Peggy,
who witnessed the scene from her window, consoled the incensed commander with "Och ! John,
dear, don't let the devil get so great a hould of
ye as to be blaspheming like a heathen in that
fearful way ; things are not so bad with you yet,
sure you have twice as many men under your
command as you had when I knew you first."
Having at last been relieved, I proceeded to
join on the Niagara frontier, and therefore marched with a detachment of the Canadian Fencibles
to Kingston, where I was joined by a friend of
mine, an officer of the booth, who was bound for
the same destination. We accordingly waited on
the Deputy Quarter Master General, and stated
the necessity of being furnished with land conveyance, as the battle which must decide the campaign, was hourly expected ; but that gentleman
having newly acquired his dignity, it did not sit
easy upon him, and with great hauteur he flatly
refused us, and unless we chose to march it,
(about 200 miles,) we had no shift but to embark
in' a batteau loaded with gunpowder, and rowed
by a party of De Watteville's regiment. This
gentleman, by the bye, afterwards distinguished
himself as a naturalist in Sir John Ross' first
Polar expedition, and as a most appropriate reward had the honor to stand god-father to a nondescript gull, which bears his name unto this,day.
In the batteau, therefore, we deposited ourselves, and with six more in company proceeded
on our way, with such speed as a set of rowers,

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who probably had never had an oar before in
their hands, could urge us. The wind though
light was ahead ; but when we got about six
hours distance from Kingston, which perhaps
might amount to eighteen or twenty miles, all
we could do was to make head-way against it,
and as it looked as if there would be more of it,
sooner than less, I (who, from my superior nautical experience, having been born and bred in a
sea-port town and acquired considerable dexterity both in stealing boats and managing them
when stolen, was voted Commodore,) ordered
them under the lee of a little rocky island, and
carried their dangerous cargo about a hundred
yards from where we encamped, that is to say,
put the gunpowder at one end of the island and
ourselves at the other, hauled up the batteau,
lighted fires, and forming a camp of sails and
tarpaulins, waited the event. A squall did come
down the lake in very handsome style, embellished with a sufficiency of spindrift to make us
thankful that we were under the lee of a rock
and covered overhead. The squall subsided into
a good steady gale, accompanied by a sea that
made it utterly impossible that we could have
proceeded even if the wind had been as favourable
as it was the contrary ; we thus had the advantage of enjoying two days of philosophical reflection on a rock in Lake Ontario. On the third it
began to moderate, and my comrade and I took
one of the empty batteaus with a strong party,
and made us directly in shore as we could, and
had the good fortune to land about twelive miles

RECOLLECTIONS OF

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above Kingston, determined to make our way on
horseback, coute qu'il coute.
Any one who has only seen the roads of Canada in the present day, can form but a very inadequate idea of what they were then between
Kingston and Toronto ; for a considerable part
of the way we were literally up to our saddleflaps. In those days all the horses along the
roads were taken up for Government, and an
officer receiving the route gave the proprietor an
order for so many horses so many miles, and the
nearest Commissary paid it ; or he paid it, taking a receipt which, when he showed it to the
Commissary at the end of his journey, was refunded. We necessarily took the latter mode, seeing we had no route to show, and therefore paid
our way ourselves, The officer who accompanied
me being like myself a subaltern, we found
we uniformly got the worst horses, as Major A.
or Colonal B. or some other "person of worship"
was expected, and the best must necessarily be
kept for him. It struck me therefore that if
"Captain" was a good travelling name, "General" must be a much better ; I proposed to my
companion that he should have the rank of Major
General "for the road only," and I volunteered
to act as Aide-de-camp. He liked the plan, but
objected that he was too young to look the character, but that as I had a more commanding and
dignified presence, I should do General and he
Aide-de-camp, and as we were dressed in our surtouts and forage caps, we were well aware that
we might easily pass with the uninitiated for any

rank we might think proper to assume. Accordingly, when we approached a halt where we were
to change horses, he rode briskly forward and
began to call lustily about him, as "one having
authority," for horses, and pointing to a very
active, stout looking pair, peremptorily ordered
them to be brought out and saddled ; but the
man of the house excused himself by saying that
he "kept them horses for the sole use of Major B.
the Deputy Quarter Master General, and as he
had the conducting of the troops on the line of
march through which the road lay, and had it in
his power to put good jobs in his way, he was
not a man whom he could offend on slight
grounds."
"D—n Major B !" exclaimed the irreverent
and indignant A.D.C. "Would you set his will, or
that of fifty like him, against the positive orders
of the great General D. who has been sent out
by the Duke of Wellington to instruct Sir Gordon Drummond how he is to conduct the campaign ? Sir, if by your neglect he is too late for
the battle that must soon be fought, you will be
answerable for it, and then hanging on your own
sign-post is the very mildest punishment you can
expect ; it is the way we always settled such
matters in Spain." To this argument there could
be no answer, so the horses were led out just as
I came up—my A.D.C. with his hat in his hand
holding my stirrup as I mounted. This to those
who knew anything about the service would have
appeared a little de trop ; but to the uninitiated,
of whom mine host was one, it only served to in-

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OF

spire him with the higher respect for the great
man his horse was about to have the honour to
carry.
So far things went on as well as could have
been wished ; but in turning a corner in a young
pine wood about a mile from where we had started, who should we meet full in the face but Major
B., (commonly called Beau B.) who was also a
captain in my own regiment. After the first salutation he expressed his surprise that the man
should have given me his horses. I assured him
that I should not have got them, but that he had
a much better pair for him. This pacified him,
so after a few minutes' conversation, (the A.D.
C. and guide keeping a respectful distance,) I
told him I had been made a general since I last
saw him. He did not see the point of the joke
at the time, but on taking leave he took off his
hat and bowing till his well brushed and perfumed locks mixed with the hair of his horse's mane,
said, loud enough for the guide to hear him,
"General D., I have the honor to wish you a
very good morning." If there had been any misgivings in the mind of the guide, this could not
fail to remove them. Immediately after he rode
up to me, and said that if I had no objections he
would ride forward, and make such arrangements
that there should be no delay in mounting me at
the next stage. To this I acceded with the most
gracious affability, so he rode on accordingly.
His zeal for the service might account for his
eagerness, yet I hope I will not be accounted uncharitable when I suspected that the importance,

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47

which attaches to the person who is first to communicate an extraordinary piece of news, may
have had something to do with all this alacrity.
However this may be, it served my purpose, for
at every stage not a moment was lost, the news
flying like wild fire. I found horses ready at
every house, and never was for one moment delayed.
With my friend Beau B. the result was somewhat different, for on arriving at the stage there
was nothing for him but our exhausted dog-tired
horses to mount, which in the state of the roads
would have been utter madness ; so he had to
wait in a roadside inn, consoling himself with
what philosophy he could muster till they were
sufficiently recruited with food and rest to continue their journey.
On this journey there occurred a circumstance
which, as it is intimately connected with the
secret history of the Province, deserves to be related. It will be news to most of my neighbors
that the Province of Canada has a secret history
of its own, or they may suppose that it may contain some such tit-bits as the secret history of
the Court of St. Petersburg in the days of Catharine ; but I am sorry to say that our secret history affords nothing so piquante ; it only relates
to the diplomacy of the Court of St. James,
with its effects on the Court of the Chateau St.
Louis.
In those days Sir George Prevost filled the
vice-regal chair of Her Majesty's dominions in
British North America, and a more incompetent

8

4 RECOLLECTIONS OP

Viceroy could hardly have been selected for such
trying times. Timid at all times, despairing of
his resources, he was afraid to venture anything;
and when he did venture, like an unskilful hunter,
he spurred his horse spiritedly at the fence, and
while the animal rose he suddenly checked him—
baulked him in the leap he could have easily
cleared, and landed himself in the ditch. Thus he
acted at Sackett's Harbour and thus at Plattsburg, where he was in possession of the forts
when he ordered the retreat to be sounded, and
ran away out of one side of the town while the
enemy were equally busy in evacuating it at the
other. But to my story. Late on the evening of
our first day's journey, and therefore somewhere
midway between Kingston and Toronto, we overtook an officer of Sir George Prevost's Staff. He
asked us why we were riding so fast ? We told
him, to be present at the coming battle. He told
us we might save ourselves the trouble, as there
would be no battle till he was there, and hinted
perhaps not then ; and strongly recommended
that, instead of pushing on through such roads
during the night, we should stop at a house he
pointed out to us, and where he was going.
Thinking, however, that a battle was not always
at the option of one party, we determined to push
on, while he turned up to a good looking two
story white framed house on the lake side of the
road. Many years after, the late Mr. Galt was
employed to advocate the War Losses in Canada
with His Majesty's Government. In one of his
conferences with the Colonial Secretary, the lat-

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49

ter stated that everything that could be done had
been done for the defence of the Province, and
that it never had been the intention either of the
Imperial or Colonial Government to abandon it.
Mr. Galt then placed in his hands a paper, purporting to be a copy of a despatch from Sir
George Prevost to Sir Gordon Drummond, ordering him to withdraw his forces from the upper
part of the Province, and to concentrate them to
cover Kingston. The Secretary then, turning to
Galt, said rather sternly :
"Sir, you could not have come fairly by this
copy of a private despatch ?"
Galt calmly replied, "My Lord, however this
paper was come by at first, I came honestly
enough by it, for it was sent to me with other
papers to assist me in advocating the claims of
those who have suffered in the war ; but I thank
your Lordship for admitting that it is a copy of
a despatch whether private or public."
His Lordship felt that, in his haste to criminate, he had allowed his diplomacy to be taken by
surprise.
Galt told me this story, and I then told him
my meeting the officer, who undoubtedly was the
hearer of the despatch ; he confessed to me that
it was at that house and on that night that the
despatches were abstracted from that Staff Officer's sabre-tasche, copied, resealed and returned.
Of course he never would tell me who were the
perpetrators ; but if a certain Colonel of Militia
(who was not then present, but attending his
duty on the frontier) were now alive,—poor fel-