Chapter II: Part 2

The success that has attended his Majesty's arms in driving the French out from the encroachments they had made in the Province, furnished me with a favourable opportunity of reducing the French inhabitants of this colony to a proper obedience to his Majesty's Government, or of forcing them to quit the country. These inhabitants were permitted in quiet possession of their lands, upon condition they should take the oath of allegiance to the King within one year after the treaty of Utrecht, by which this Province was ceded to Great Britain; with this condition they have ever refused to comply without having from the Governor an assurance in writing that they should not be called upon to bear arms in the defence of the Province; and with this General Philips did comply, of which steps his Majesty has disapproved, and the inhabitants therefrom pretending to be in a state of neutrality between his Majesty and his enemies, have continually furnished the French and Indians with intelligence, quarters, provisions and assistance in annoying the Government; and while one part have abetted the French encroachments by their treachery, the other have countenanced them by open rebellion; and three hundred of them were actually found in arms in the French fort at Beauséjour when it surrendered.

Notwithstanding all their former bad behaviour, as his Majesty was pleased to allow me to extend still further his royal grace to such as would return to their duty, I offered such of them as had not been openly in arms against us a continuance of the possession of their lands, if they would take the oath of allegiance unqualified with any reservation whatever. But this they have audaciously as well as unanimously refused; and if they would presume to do this when there was a large fleet of ships of war in the harbour and considerable land forces in the Province, what might not we expect from them when the approaching winter deprives us of the former, and when the troops, which are only hired from New England occasionally and for a short time, have returned home?

As by this behaviour the inhabitants have forfeited all title to their lands and any further favour from the Government, I called together his Majesty's Council, at which the Hon. Vice-Admiral Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn assisted, to consider by what means we could with the greatest security and effect rid ourselves of a set of people who would for ever have been an obstruction to the intention of settling this colony, and that it was now from their refusal of the oath absolutely incumbent to remove.

As their numbers amount to near seven thousand persons, the driving them off, with leave to go whithersoever they pleased, would have doubtless strengthened Canada with so considerable a number of French inhabitants; and, as they have no cleared lands to give them at present, such as are able to bear arms must have been immediately employed in annoying this and the neighbouring Colonies. To prevent such an inconveniency, it was judged a necessary and the only practicable measure, to divide them among the Colonies, where they may be of some use, as most of them are healthy strong people, and as they cannot easily collect themselves together again, it will be out of their power to do any mischief, and they may become profitable, and it is possible in time faithful subjects.

As this step was indispensably necessary to the security of the colony, upon whose preservation from French encroachments the prosperity of North America is esteemed in a great measure dependent, I have not the least reason to doubt of your Excellency's concurrence, and that you will receive the inhabitants I now send, and dispose of them in such a manner as may best answer in preventing their re-union....

12. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (1757-60).

=Source.=--_The Letters of Horace Walpole_: edited by Peter Cunningham. Edinburgh, 1906.

8 Sept., 1757. We had a torrent of bad news yesterday from America. Lord Loudon has found an army of twenty-one thousand French, gives over the design on Louisbourg, and retires to Halifax. Admiral Holbourn writes that they have nineteen ships to his seventeen, and he cannot attack them. It is time for England to slip her own cables and float away into some unknown ocean.

24 Aug., 1758. Our next and greatest triumph is the taking of Cape Breton, the account of which came on Friday. The French have not improved like their wines by crossing the sea; but lost their spirit at Louisbourg as much as on their own coast. The success, especially in the destruction of their fleet, is very great; the triumphs not at all disproportionate to the conquest, of which you will see all the particulars in the Gazette. Now for the chapter of cypresses. The attempt on Crownpoint has failed; Lord Howe was killed in a skirmish; and two days afterward by blunders, rashness and bad intelligence we received a great blow at Ticonderoga.... My hope is that Cape Breton may buy us Minorca and a peace.

9 Feb., 1759. The expedition, called to Quebec, departs on Tuesday next under Wolfe and George Townshend, who has thrust himself again into the service, and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, very proper for a hero. Wolfe, who was no friend of Mr. Conway last year and for whom I consequently have no affection, has great merit, spirit and alacrity, and shone extremely at Louisbourg. I am not such a Juno but I will forgive him after eleven more labours.

16 Oct., 1759. I love to prepare your countenance for every event that may happen, for an ambassador, who is nothing but an actor, should be that greatest of actors, a philosopher; and, with the leave of wise men (that is, hypocrites), philosophy I hold to be little more than presence of mind; now undoubtedly preparation is a prodigious help to presence of mind. In short, you must not be surprised that we have failed at Quebec, as we certainly shall.[2] You may say, if you please, in the style of modern politics, that your court never supposed it could be taken; the attempt was only made to draw off the Russians from the King of Prussia, and leave him at liberty to attack Daun. Two days ago came letters from Wolfe, despairing, as much as heroes can despair. The town is well victualled, Amherst is not arrived, and fifteen thousand men encamped defend it. We have lost many men by the enemy, and some by our friends--that is, we now call our nine thousand only seven thousand.

19 Oct. I had no occasion to be in such a hurry to prepare your ambassadorial countenance; if I had stayed but one day more, I might have left its muscles to behave as they pleased. The notification of a probable disappointment at Quebec came only to heighten the pleasure of the conquest. You may now give yourself what airs you please, you are master of East and West Indies. An ambassador is the only man in the world whom bullying becomes: I beg your pardon, but you are spies, if you are not bragadochios. All precedents are on your side: Persians, Greeks, Romans, always insulted their neighbours when they conquered Quebec....

It was a very singular affair, the generals on both sides slain, and on both sides the second in command wounded; in short, very near what battles should be, in which only the principals ought to suffer. If their army has not ammunition and spirit enough to fall again upon ours before Amherst comes up, all North America is ours.

21 Oct. Instead of the glorious and ever-memorable year 1759, as the newspapers call it, I call it this ever-warm and victorious year: one would think we had plundered East and West Indies of sunshine. Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories.... Adieu! I don't know a word of news less than the conquest of America.

P.S.--You shall hear from me again if we take Mexico or China before Christmas.

20 June, 1760. Who the deuce was thinking of Quebec? America was like a book one has read and done with; or at least if one looked at the book, one just recollected that there was a supplement promised, to contain a chapter on Montreal, the starving and surrender of it--but here are we on a sudden reading our book backwards. An account came two days ago that the French on the march to besiege Quebec had been attacked by General Murray, who got into a mistake and a morass, attacked two bodies that were joined, when he hoped to come up with one of them before the junction, was enclosed, embogged and defeated. By the list of officers killed and wounded, I believe there has been a rueful slaughter,--the place, too, I suppose will be retaken. The year 1760 is not the year 1759.

28 June, 1760. Well, Quebec is come to life again. Last night I went to see the Holdernesses ... in Sion-lane. As Cibber says of the Revolution, I met the Raising of the Siege; that is, I met my Lady in a triumphal car, drawn by a Manx horse thirteen little fingers high, with Lady Emily ... they were going to see the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner. The whole procession returned with me; and from the countess's dressing-room, we saw a battery fired before the house, the mob crying, "God bless the good news!"

5 Oct., 1760. I am afraid you will turn me off from being your gazetteer. Do you know that I came to town to-day by accident, and was here four hours before I heard that Montreal was taken? The express came early this morning. I am so posthumous in my intelligence that you must not expect any intelligence from me.... All I know is, that the bonfires and squibs are drinking General Amherst's health.

13. THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC (1759).

=Source.=--A Letter from an Officer to his Friend, quoted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for December, 1759.

I make no doubt but your anxiety with regard to our success in this part of the world has been very great, both with respect to the navigable part (as we were all strangers and new adventurers) as also for the progress of our troops.

What the French have ever reported of this river is a mere bugbear, as there are but few dangerous spots in it, and those very easily discovered; a proof of their having acted a very politic part in keeping us so long from attempting to approach one of the finest countries and climates in the world. The river abounds with great variety and plenty of fine fish, such as salmon, sturgeon, bass, cod and all kinds of flat fish. At the place from which I date this letter the water is entirely fresh, like that of the Thames, so that we fill all our casks with it alongside the ship. Great part of the country, from the isle Bic to Montreal (which is about 25 leagues above Quebec) is well cultivated, and sowed with wheat, barley, peas, flax and almost every other kind of grain.

The isle of Orleans is an exceeding fine island, rising very gradually from the water's edge each way to the middle. It has many thousand acres of good grain now growing upon it, and the lands are parted with good paling. It produces great plenty of French beans, cabbage, turnips and other useful plants and roots. This island and Coudre the French evacuated at our approach, and left us masters both of their houses and lands; so that our men were at liberty to pick and choose among fine green peas, currants, gooseberries, apples, raspberries, cherries and, in short, everything of the like kind. This country abounds also with horned cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry; and in all the woods there is plenty of gooseberries and raspberries uncultivated. Here are numbers of churches, and all kinds of mills round the country. In short, it is a second England, and I am credibly informed the weather is very fine the greatest part of the year.

Quebec is a large city, one part very high, the other at the foot of the eminence. The lower part, containing a large cathedral and Bishop's palace with many other churches, we have reduced to rubbish. Quebec, I assure you, is not that trifling poor fishing town the French have hitherto represented it to be.

The first salutation our ships had on their approach near the town was seven fire-ships well filled with combustibles, and their rigging smeared with tar. These came burning down the river with the help of a strong current, directed on the body of our fleet. But as some such contrivance was expected by the Admiral, good provision was made for his defence by having all the boats of the squadron out, well manned and armed, with an officer in each boat and fire-grapplings. The fire-ships were instantly boarded by our men, who so fixed their grapplings and chains as to tow them clear of every ship to shore on the isle of Orleans, where they burned to ashes without doing the least damage. The next annoyance was 17 fire-rafts, well supplied with gun and pistol barrels loaded, granadoes, and combustibles of all sorts, each of them 103 feet long, and slackly chained together, so that at the least interruption they might surround whatever opposed their passage. They came burning down with the current, and one would have thought the whole river in a flame as they spread almost from shore to shore; but these were also grappled in like manner, and, being towed clear off all the ships, consumed with the loss only of one boat, and I believe all the men saved. General Wolfe, finding so great an opposition, published a placard and spread it in the French camp; but it had no effect on the Canadians; he therefore ordered all the habitations, barns, stables and corn on the lands, as soon as ripe, to be totally destroyed. The sides of the river began immediately to show a most dismal appearance of fire and smoke; and (as the troops employed on this service were the remains of those who escaped the massacre by the French at Fort William Henry, where they killed and scalped every wounded officer and common man) they spared little or nothing that came in their way. Admiral Holmes in the _Sutherland_ passed a very strong battery and went about twenty leagues above the town in order to burn some frigates and other ships that were got high up the river. The French pilots themselves were amazed at the hazards we run with ships of so great burthen, as we were all higher up the river than any French ships of equal burthen ever were, above the traverse which their ships scarce ever passed.

14. WOLFE'S DIFFICULTIES AT QUEBEC (1759).

=Source.=--Wolfe's Despatch of 2nd September, 1759, quoted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for October, 1759.

... The Admiral's despatches and mine would have gone eight or ten days sooner, if I had not been prevented from writing by a fever. I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the general officers to consult together for the public utility. They are all of opinion that (as more ships and provisions have now got above the town) they should try, by conveying up a corps of 4, or 5000 men (which is nearly the whole strength of the army, after the points of Lévis and Orleans are left in a proper state of defence), to draw the enemy from their present situation and bring them to an action. I have acquiesced in their proposal, and we are preparing to put it in execution.

The Admiral and I have examined the town with a view to a general assault; but, after consulting with the chief engineer, who is well acquainted with the interior parts of it, and after viewing it with the utmost attention, we found that, though the batteries of the lower town might be easily silenced by the men-of-war, yet the business of an assault would be little advantaged by that, since the few passages that lead from the lower to the upper town are carefully entrenched; and the upper batteries cannot be affected by the ships, which must receive considerable damage from them and from the mortars. The Admiral would readily join in this or in any other measure for the public service; but I could not propose to him an undertaking of so dangerous a nature and promising so little success.

To the uncommon strength of the country, the enemy have added (for the defence of the river) a great number of floating batteries and boats. By the vigilance of these and the Indians round our different posts, it has been impossible to execute anything by surprise. We have had almost daily skirmishes with these savages, in which they are generally defeated, but not without loss on our side.

By the list of disabled officers (many of whom are of rank) you may perceive, Sir, that the army is much weakened. By the nature of the river the most formidable part of this armament is deprived of the power of acting, yet we have almost the whole force of Canada to oppose. In this situation, there is such a choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain, I know, require the most vigorous measures; but then the courage of a handful of brave men should be exerted only where there is some hope of a favourable event. However, you may be assured, Sir, that the small part of the campaign which remains shall be employed (as far as I am able) for the honour of his Majesty and the interest of the nation, in which I am sure of being well seconded by the Admiral and by the Generals. Happy if our efforts here can contribute to the success of his Majesty's arms in any other parts of America, I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

JAMES WOLFE.

15. The Plains Of Abraham (1759).

=Source.=--_An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America, 1757-60_, by Captain John Knox. London, 1769.

Thursday, September 13, 1759. Before daybreak this morning we made a descent upon the north shore, about half a quarter of a mile to the eastward of Sillery; and the light troops were fortunately by the rapidity of the current carried lower down between us and Cape Diamond; we had in this debarkation thirty flat-bottomed boats containing about sixteen hundred men. This was a great surprise on the enemy, who, from the natural strength of the place, did not suspect, and consequently were not prepared against, so bold an attempt. The chain of sentries which they had posted along the summit of the heights galled us a little and picked off several men and some officers before our light infantry got up to dislodge them. This grand enterprise was conducted and executed with great good order and discretion; as fast as we landed, the boats put off for reinforcements, and the troops formed with much regularity; the General with Brigadiers Monckton and Murray were ashore with the first division. We lost no time here, but clambered up one of the steepest precipices that can be conceived, being almost a perpendicular and of an incredible height. As soon as we gained the summit, all was quiet and not a shot was heard owing to the excellent conduct of the light infantry under Colonel Howe; it was by this time clear daylight. Here we formed again, the river and the south country in our rear, our right extending to the town, our left to Sillery, and halted a few minutes. The General then detached the light troops to our left to rout the enemy from their battery and to disable their guns, except they could be rendered serviceable to the party who were to remain there; and this service was soon performed. We then faced to the right and marched towards the town by files till we came to the plains of Abraham, an even piece of ground which Mr. Wolfe had made choice of while we stood forming upon the hill. Weather showery: about six o'clock the enemy first made their appearance upon the heights between us and the town; whereupon we halted and wheeled to the right, thereby forming the line of battle.... The enemy had now likewise formed the line of battle, and got some cannon to play on us with round and canister shot; but what galled us most was a body of Indians and other marksmen they had concealed in the corn opposite to the front of our right wing and a coppice that stood opposite to our centre inclining towards our left; but the Colonel Hale, by Brigadier Monckton's orders, advanced some platoons alternately from the forty-seventh regiment, which after a few rounds obliged these skulkers to retire: we were now ordered to lie down, and remained some time in this position. About eight o'clock we had two pieces of short brass six-pounders playing on the enemy, which threw them into some confusion, and obliged them to alter their disposition, and Montcalm formed them into three large columns; about nine the two armies moved a little nearer each other. The light cavalry made a faint attempt upon our parties at the battery of Sillery, but were soon beat off, and Monsieur de Bougainville with his troops from Cape Rouge came down to attack the flank of our second line, hoping to penetrate there; but by a masterly disposition of Brigadier Townshend they were forced to desist, and the third battalion of Royal Americans was then detached to the first ground we had formed on after we gained the heights, to preserve the communication with the beach and our boats. About ten o'clock the enemy began to advance briskly in three columns with loud shouts and recovered arms, two of them inclining to the left of our army and the third towards our right, firing obliquely at the two extremities of our line from the distance of one hundred and thirty until they came within forty yards; which our troops withstood with the greatest intrepidity and firmness, still reserving their fire and paying the strictest obedience to their officers; this uncommon steadiness, together with the havoc which the grape-shot from our field-pieces made among them, threw them into some disorder and was most critically maintained by a well-timed, regular, and heavy discharge of our small arms, such as they could no longer oppose; hereupon they gave way and fled with precipitation, so that by the time the cloud of smoke was vanished our men were again loaded, and profiting by the advantage we had over them pursued them almost to the gates of the town and the bridge over the little river, redoubling our fire with great eagerness, making many officers and men prisoners. The weather cleared up, with a comfortably warm sunshine; the Highlanders chased them vigorously towards Charles's river, and the fifty-eighth to the suburb close to John's gate, until they were checked by the cannon from the two hulks; at the same time a gun, which the town had brought to bear upon us with grape-shot, galled the progress of the regiments to the right, who were likewise pursuing with equal ardour, while Colonel Hunt Walsh by a very judicious movement wheeled the battalions of Bragg and Kennedy to the left, and flanked the coppice where a body of the enemy made a stand, as if willing to renew the action; but a few platoons from these corps completed our victory. Then it was that Brigadier Townshend came up, called off the pursuers, ordered the whole line to dress and recover their former ground. Our joy at this success is inexpressibly damped by the loss we sustained of one of the greatest heroes which this or any other age can boast of,--GENERAL JAMES WOLFE, who received his mortal wound, as he was exerting himself at the head of the grenadiers of Louisbourg.... The officers who are prisoners say that Quebec will surrender in a few days: some deserters, who came out to us in the evening, agree in that opinion, and inform us that the Sieur de Montcalm is dying in great agony of a wound he received to-day in their retreat.

=Source.=--The Letter in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, December, 1759, already quoted (13).

[Wolfe was wounded three times.] He then went reeling aside, but was soon supported by an officer, of whom he inquired if the enemy were put to flight; and, being assured they were, and that our troops were in pursuit, he smiled and said he died with pleasure on the spot he ever wished to die on, and then closed his eyes. Thus died this great young General, whose behaviour on this day will ever be an honour to his country....

'Tis a noble summer's work, though many brave fellows have suffered much by it; but all, both soldiers and sailors, to a man behaved nobly. The French army consisted of about 5000 regulars, the rest Canadians, some of very considerable fortune, many of whom fell in the action, and the rest are reduced almost to beggary. The prisoners all agree that this is the greatest stroke the French ever felt from the English arms; and I readily believe it, as the place is incredibly strong, and by its surrender we must make North America our own.

16. GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC UNDER THE BRITISH (1763-74).

=Source.=--The Proclamation of 7th October, 1763, printed in _Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-91_, edited by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty.

WHEREAS we have taken into Our Royal Consideration the extensive and valuable Acquisitions in America, secured to our Crown by the late Definitive Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris, the 10th Day of February last; and being desirous that all Our loving Subjects, as well of our Kingdom as of our Colonies in America, may avail themselves with all convenient Speed, of the great Benefits and Advantages which must accrue therefrom to their Commerce, Manufactures and Navigation, We have thought fit, with the Advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation, hereby to publish and declare to all our loving Subjects, that we have, with the advice of our said Privy Council, granted our Letters Patent, under our Great Seal of Great Britain, to erect, within the Countries and Islands ceded and confirmed to Us by the said Treaty, Four distinct and separate Governments, styled and called by the names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Grenada....

And whereas it will greatly contribute to the speedy settling our said new Governments, that our loving subjects should be informed of our Paternal care, for the security of the Liberties and Properties of those who are and shall become Inhabitants thereof, We have thought fit to publish and declare ... that we have ... given express Power and Direction to our Governors of our said Colonies respectively, that so soon as the state and circumstances of the said Colonies will admit thereof, they shall, with the Advice and Consent of the Members of our Council, summon and call General Assemblies within the said Governments respectively, in such Manner and Form as is used and directed in those Colonies and Provinces in America which are under our immediate Government; and We have also given Power to the said Governors, with the consent of our said Councils and the Representatives of the People so to be summoned as aforesaid, to make, constitute, and ordain Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances for the Public Peace, Welfare, and good Government of our said Colonies, and of the People and Inhabitants thereof, as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England, and under such Regulations and Restrictions as are used in other Colonies; and in the mean Time, and until such Assemblies can be called as aforesaid, all Persons Inhabiting in or resorting to our said Colonies may confide in our Royal Protection for the Enjoyment of the Benefit of the Laws of our Realm of England; for which Purpose We have given Power under our Great Seal to the Governors of our said Colonies respectively to erect and constitute, with the Advice of our said Councils respectively, Courts of Judicature and public Justice within our said Colonies for hearing and determining all Causes, as well Criminal as Civil, according to Law and Equity, and as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England, with Liberty to all Persons who may think themselves aggrieved by the Sentences of such Courts, in all Civil Cases, to appeal, under the usual Limitations and Restrictions, to Us in our Privy Council.

17. ON THE COPPERMINE RIVER IN JULY (1771).

=Source.=--Samuel Hearne's _A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean_. London, 1795.

After a sleep of five or six hours we once more set out, and walked eighteen or nineteen miles to the South South East, when we arrived at one of the copper mines, which lies, from the river's mouth about South South East, distant about twenty-nine or thirty miles.

This mine, if it deserve that appellation, is no more than an entire jumble of rocks and gravel, which has been rent many ways by an earthquake. Through these ruins there runs a small river; but no part of it, at the time I was there, was more than knee-deep.

The Indians who were the occasion of my undertaking this journey, represented this mine to be so rich and valuable, that if a factory were built at the river, a ship might be ballasted with the ore, instead of stone; and that with the same ease and dispatch as is done with stones at Churchill River. By their account the hills were entirely composed of that metal, all in handy lumps, like a heap of pebbles. But their account differed so much from the truth, that I and almost all my companions expended near four hours in search of some of this metal, with such poor success, that among us all only one piece of any size could be found. This, however, was remarkably good, and weighed above four pounds. I believe the copper has formerly been in much greater plenty; for in many places, both on the surface and in the cavities and crevices of the rocks, the stones are much tinged with verdigris.

It may not be unworthy the notice of the curious, or undeserving a place in my Journal, to remark that the Indians imagine that every bit of copper they find resembles some object in nature; but, by what I saw of the large piece, and some smaller ones which were found by my companions, it requires a great share of invention to make this out. I found that different people had different ideas on the subject, for the large piece of copper above mentioned had not been found long before it had twenty different names ... at last it was generally allowed to resemble an Alpine hare couchant: for my part, I must confess that I could not see it had the least resemblance to any thing to which they compared it....

Before Churchill River was settled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which was not more than fifty years previous to this journey being undertaken, the Northern Indians had no other metal but copper among them, except a small quantity of iron-work, which a party of them who visited York Fort about the year 1713 or 1714 purchased; and a few pieces of old iron found at Churchill River, which had undoubtedly been left there by Captain Monk. This being the case, numbers of them from all quarters used every summer to resort to these hills in search of copper; of which they made hatchets, ice-chisels, bayonets, knives, awls, arrow-heads, etc. The many paths that had been beaten by the Indians on these occasions, and which are yet, in many places, very perfect, especially on the dry ridges and hills, is surprising; in the valleys and marshy grounds, however, they are mostly grown over with herbage, so as not to be discerned.

The Copper Indians set a great value on their native metal even to this day; and prefer it to iron for almost every use except that of a hatchet, a knife, and an awl; for these three necessary implements copper makes but a very poor substitute.

18. THE QUEBEC ACT (1774).

=Source.=--Shortt and Doughty's _Constitutional Documents_ (_cf._ 16).

... for the more perfect security and ease of the minds of the inhabitants of the said province, it is hereby declared, that his Majesty's subjects professing the religion of the Church of Rome of and in the said province of Quebec, may have, hold and enjoy the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome, subject to the King's supremacy ... and that the clergy of the said Church may hold, receive and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights, with respect to such persons only as shall profess the said religion....

... all his Majesty's Canadian subjects within the province of Quebec, the religious Orders and Communities only excepted, may also hold and enjoy their property and possessions, together with all customs and usages relative thereto, and all other their civil rights, in as large, ample and beneficial manner ... as may consist with their allegiance to his Majesty, and subjection to the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; and ... in all matters of controversy relative to property and civil rights, resort shall be had to the laws of Canada as the rule for the decision of the same....

And whereas the certainty and lenity of the Criminal Law of England, and the benefits and advantages resulting from the use of it, have been sensibly felt by the inhabitants, from an experience of more than nine years, during which it has been uniformly administered; be it therefore further enacted ... that the same shall continue to be administered, and shall be observed as law in the province of Quebec....

And whereas it may be necessary to ordain many regulations for the future welfare and good government of the province of Quebec, the occasions of which cannot now be foreseen, nor, without much delay and inconvenience, be provided for, without entrusting that authority, for a certain time and under proper restrictions, to persons resident there: And whereas it is at present inexpedient to call an Assembly ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to constitute and appoint a Council for the affairs of the province of Quebec, to consist of such persons resident there, not exceeding twenty-three nor less than seventeen, as his Majesty ... shall be pleased to appoint ... which Council, so appointed and nominated, or the major part thereof, shall have power and authority to make ordinances for the peace, welfare and good government of the said province, with the consent of his Majesty's Governor, or, in his absence, of the Lieutenant-Governor or Commander-in-Chief for the time being.

19. ONE OF THE LOYALISTS (1783).

=Source.=--A Memoir by his Grand-daughter, Mrs. Sophia Rowe, in the _Transactions_ for 1899 of The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Ontario.

The late Captain Samuel Anderson was born of Irish parents near Boston on 4th of May, 1736. He was a lawyer in good practice and married Miss Prudentia Deliverance Butts of Boston, who was born 1743 and died 1824. Samuel Anderson went to the West Indies early in life for the benefit of his health. On his return he joined the King's forces, probably as one of the contingent furnished by the New England Provinces after the breaking out of the war with France in 1756. He served under General Abercrombie in 1758, and under General Amherst in 1759-60-61.... After the close of the war, he settled on a farm near Boston, where he resided until the breaking out of the rebellion in 1775. He was offered a company in the Continental Service, which he refused. Some time after, he was offered command of a regiment in the same service, which he also refused. This caused him to be looked upon as a _King's Man_ and led to an attempt on the part of some of his neighbours to convert him from the error of his ways by one or other of the gentle means of carting, flogging, or tar-and-feathering then in vogue amongst the revolutionary party. Five or six of them started out to try the experiment; they found him on his farm splitting rails; he politely asked them their business, and, on being told they had come to teach him a lesson, he invited them to "come and try." As he was a very large and powerful man, they looked at him, then at the axe in his hand, and moved off, evidently considering "discretion the better part of valour." Several attempts were made to arrest him, and he was at one time secreted on his own property, when a party of Continentals billeted themselves at his house. The sergeant read a proclamation offering a reward of five hundred pounds for the body of Samuel Anderson dead or alive, after which the party conversed in French, not thinking they would be understood by Mrs. Anderson; but the brave woman, without betraying the slightest fear or knowledge of what they talked of, heard all they purposed doing to her husband, should he be found. She directed her servants to prepare food and beds for all, had their horses stabled and fed, then, waiting till all was quiet, went in the dark to her husband and bade him fly for his life.

However, he with many other loyalists were captured and confined in Litchfield jail, where they suffered all but death until the beginning of 1777, when, having been told that all the prisoners were to be shot the next day, Anderson wrenched the bars from a window, and with his companions escaped to Canada, where he was appointed a Captain in the 1st Battalion of Sir John Johnston's corps, the King's Royal Regiment of New York. When General Burgoyne was preparing to advance from Ticonderoga, Captain Anderson was placed at the head of the workmen who were employed in making the roads through the forest from the head of Lake Champlain towards Fort Edward. He served in the battalion of the Royal Yorkers until they were disbanded in the spring of 1784. From the time of his imprisonment in Litchfield jail, his wife saw nothing of him until late in 1778, when, after suffering terribly from the cruelty of the Continentals, she abandoned all her property, paid the Yankee Governor 2s. 6d. for a pass, and with her family made her way to Sorel, where her husband was then stationed with his company of the Royal Yorkers, where they remained till the spring of 1783, when he with his two elder sons who had served under him were put on half pay when peace was declared; and at the reduction of the army, Anderson, with his family and the men of his company, received their allotment of lands in Cornwall, then a wilderness, the nearest settlement being Montreal distant 68 miles, and Kingston 105 miles. They came up the St. Lawrence by batteaux, and lived for some time under shelter of cedar boughs, until able to erect log houses for themselves. A short time after their arrival the "Dark Sunday" occurred, when at mid-day total darkness fell upon all the land, and continued for about two hours. The rain came down in torrents, flooding their temporary dwelling, causing great discomfort, while the thunder and lightning were terrific. In those days there were no merchants, no baker or butcher shops, no medical men, no ministers to console the sick or dying or bury the dead, and no means of instruction for the young. The Loyalists were generally poor, having sacrificed their property to their politics, and were obliged to work very hard. All was bush, hard labour and pinching privation for the present and long toil for the rising generation. The only mail in the early settlement of West Canada between Kingston and Montreal was in the winter carried three times by an old French Canadian, Jacques Morriseau, who travelled the whole distance on snow shoes. His food was sea biscuit and fat pork which he ate and enjoyed sitting on a snow bank, and would afterwards puff away dull care in clouds of smoke curling from his old clay pipe, the stem of which was just long enough to keep the burning punk with which he lit it about two inches from his nose. From Lachine to Cornwall, he was obliged to sleep out of doors three nights--the settlers were then so few and far between, he could not always reach a house--and the only bed he had on these occasions was of green boughs under him and a blanket to cover him. He always rested a night going either way under Captain Anderson's roof. In 1785, Captain Anderson was appointed a magistrate ... and drew half pay as a Captain until his death, which occurred in June, 1836 (born 1736), not from any bodily ailment, but accidentally falling, his hip joint was broken, and from his great age the bones would not unite.

20. THE DESCENT OF THE MACKENZIE RIVER (1789).

=Source.=--Sir Alexander Mackenzie's _Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793_. London, 1801.

5 July, 1789.... There were five families, consisting of twenty-five or thirty persons, and of two different tribes, the Slave and Dog-rib Indians. We made them smoke, though it was evident they did not know the use of tobacco; we likewise supplied them with grog; but I am disposed to think that they accepted our civilities rather from fear than inclination. We acquired a more effectual influence over them by the distribution of knives, beads, awls, rings, gartering, fire-steels, flints and hatchets; so that they became more familiar even than we expected, for we could not keep them out of our tents; though I did not observe that they attempted to purloin anything.

The information which they gave respecting the river had so much of the fabulous that I shall not detail it: it will be sufficient just to mention their attempts to persuade us that it would require several winters to get to the sea, and that old age would come upon us before the period of our return: we were also to encounter monsters of such horrid shapes and destructive powers as could only exist in their wild imaginations. They added, besides, that there were two impassable falls in the river, the first of which was about thirty days march from us.

Though I placed no faith in these strange relations, they had a very different effect upon our Indians, who were already tired of the voyage. It was their opinion and anxious wish that we should not hesitate to return. They said that, according to the information which they had received, there were very few animals in the country beyond us, and that, as we proceeded, the scarcity would increase, and we should absolutely perish from hunger, if no other accident befell us. It was with no small trouble that they were convinced of the folly of these reasonings; and, by my desire, they induced one of those Indians to accompany us, in consideration of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and some other articles.

Though it was now three o'clock in the afternoon, the canoe was ordered to be reloaded, and, as we were ready to embark, our new recruit was desired to prepare himself for his departure, which he would have declined; but as none of his friends would take his place, we may be said, after the delay of an hour, to have compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure a ceremony took place, of which I could not learn the meaning; he cut off a lock of his hair, and having divided it into three parts, he fastened one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head, blowing on it three times with the utmost violence in his power, and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened with the same formalities on the heads of his two children.

During our short stay with these people, they amused us with dancing, which they accompanied with their voices; but neither their song or their dance possessed much variety. The men and women formed a promiscuous ring. The former have a bone dagger or piece of stick between the fingers of the right hand, which they keep extended above the head, in continual motion; the left they seldom raise so high, but work it backwards and forwards in an horizontal direction; while they leap about and throw themselves into various antic postures, to the measure of their music, always bringing their heels close to each other at every pause. The men occasionally howl in imitation of some animal, and he who continues this violent exercise for the longest period, appears to be considered as the best performer.

21. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791.

=Source.=--Shortt and Doughty's _Documents_. (Cf. 16.)

II. ... whereas his Majesty has been pleased to signify by his message to both Houses of Parliament, his royal intention to divide his province of Quebec into two separate provinces, to be called _The Province of Upper Canada_ and _The Province of Lower Canada_ ... there shall be within each of the said provinces respectively a Legislative Council and an Assembly....

III. ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to authorise and direct the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor ... to summon to the said Legislative Council ... a sufficient number of discreet and proper persons, being not fewer than seven to the Legislative Council for the province of Upper Canada, and not fewer than fifteen to the Legislative Council for the province of Lower Canada....

XIV. ... for the purpose of electing the members of such Assemblies respectively, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to authorise the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor ... to issue a proclamation dividing such province into districts or counties or circles, and towns or townships, and appointing the limits thereof, and declaring and appointing the number of representatives to be chosen by each of such districts....

XVII. ... the whole number of members to be chosen in the province of Upper Canada shall not be less than sixteen, ... in the province of Lower Canada shall not be less than fifty.

XXVII. ... the said Legislative Council and Assembly, in each of the said provinces, shall be called together once at the least in every twelve calendar months, and ... every Assembly shall continue for four years ... subject nevertheless to be sooner prorogued or dissolved by the Governor....

XXX. ... whenever any bill which has been passed by the Legislative Council and by the House of Assembly ... shall be presented, for his Majesty's assent, to the Governor ... such Governor ... is hereby authorised and required to declare, according to his discretion, but subject nevertheless to the provisions contained in this Act, and to such instructions as may from time to time be given in that behalf by his Majesty ... that he assents to such bill in his Majesty's name, or that he withholds his Majesty's assent from such bill, or that he reserves such bill for the signification of his Majesty's pleasure thereon.

XXXI. ... whenever any bill ... shall by such Governor ... have been assented to in his Majesty's name, such Governor ... is hereby required, by the first convenient opportunity, to transmit to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State an authentic copy of such bill so assented to; ... it shall and may be lawful, at any time within two years after such bill shall have been so received ... for his Majesty ... to declare his ... disallowance of such bill....

XXXVI. ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to authorise the Governor ... to make, from and out of the lands of the Crown within such provinces, such allotment and appropriation of lands, for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy within the same, as may bear a due proportion to the amount of such lands within the same as have at any time been granted by or under the authority of his Majesty; ... such lands so allotted and appropriated shall be, as nearly as the circumstances and nature of the case will admit, of the like quality as the lands in respect of which the same are so allotted ... and shall be, as nearly as the same can be estimated at the time of making such grant, equal in value to the seventh part of the lands so granted.

XLIII. ... all lands which shall be hereafter granted within the said province of Upper Canada shall be granted in free and common soccage, in like manner as lands are now holden in free and common soccage in that part of Great Britain called England; ... in every case where lands shall be hereafter granted within the said province of Lower Canada, and where the grantee thereof shall desire the same to be granted in free and common soccage, the same shall be so granted; but subject nevertheless to such alterations, with respect to the nature and consequences of such tenure of free and common soccage, as may be established by any law or laws which may be made by his Majesty ... by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of the province.

XLVI. ... nothing in this Act shall extend ... to prevent or affect the execution of any law which hath been or shall at any time be made by his Majesty ... and the Parliament of Great Britain, for establishing regulations of prohibitions, or for imposing, levying or collecting duties for the regulation of navigation, or for the regulation of the commerce to be carried on between the said two provinces or between either of the said provinces and any foreign country or state, or for appointing and directing the payment of drawbacks of such duties so imposed....

22. TO THE PACIFIC OVERLAND. THE FIRST CROSSING OF NORTH AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO (1793).

=Source.=--Sir A. Mackenzie's _Voyages_. (Cf. 20.)

Sunday, 21 July, 1793.... We landed, and found the ruins of a village, in a situation calculated for defence. The place itself was overgrown with weeds, and in the centre of the houses there was a temple of the same form and construction as that which I described at the large village. We were soon followed by ten canoes, each of which contained from three to six men. They informed us that we were expected at the village, where we should see many of them. From their general deportment I was very apprehensive that some hostile design was meditated against us, and for the first time I acknowledged my apprehensions to my people. I accordingly desired them to be very much upon their guard, and to be prepared if any violence was offered to defend themselves to the last.

We had no sooner landed than we took possession of a rock, where there was not space for more than twice our number, and which admitted of our defending ourselves with advantage, in case we should be attacked. The people in the three first canoes were the most troublesome, but, after doing their utmost to irritate us, they went away. They were, however, no sooner gone than an hat, an handkerchief and several other articles were missing. The rest of our visitors continued their pressing invitations to accompany them to their village, but finding our resolution to decline them was not to be shaken, they about sunset relieved us from all further importunities by their departure....

The natives having left us, we made a fire to warm ourselves, and as for supper there was but little of that, for our whole daily allowance did not amount to what was sufficient for a single meal. The weather was clear throughout the day, which was succeeded by a fine moonlight night. I directed the people to keep watch by two in turn, and laid myself down in my cloak.

Monday, 22nd. This morning the weather was clear and pleasant; nor had anything occurred to disturb us throughout the night. One solitary Indian, indeed, came to us with about half a pound of boiled seal's flesh and the head of a small salmon, for which he asked an handkerchief, but afterwards accepted a few beads. As this man came alone, I concluded that no general plan had been formed among the natives to annoy us, but this opinion did not altogether calm the apprehensions of my people....