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+Project Gutenberg's A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs, by George M. Wrong
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs
+       The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861
+
+Author: George M. Wrong
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2005 [EBook #16747]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CANADIAN MANOR AND ITS SEIGNEURS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Taavi Kalju and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page scans provided by Internet
+Archive/Toronto Collection.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN NAIRNE]
+
+
+
+
+A CANADIAN MANOR
+AND ITS SEIGNEURS
+
+THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS
+1761-1861
+
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE M. WRONG, M.A.
+PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+TORONTO
+THE BRYANT PRESS, LIMITED
+1908
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1908
+BY GEORGE M. WRONG
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In spite of many pleasant summers spent at Murray Bay one had never
+thought of it as having a history. The place and its people seemed
+simple, untutored, new. Some of the other summer residents talked
+complacently even of having discovered it. They had heard of Murray Bay
+as beautiful and had gone to explore this unknown country. When this
+bold feat was performed there was abundant recompense. Valley, mountain,
+river and stream united to make Murray Bay delightful. The little summer
+community grew. At first visitors lived in the few primitive hotels or
+in cottages at Pointe au Pic, vacated for the time being by their
+owners, who found temporary lodgings somewhere,--not infrequently in
+their own out-buildings. The cottages left something to be desired, and,
+gradually, the visitors bought land and built houses for themselves:
+to-day dozens of them dot the western shore of Murray Bay. In due time
+appeared tennis courts; then a golf links. Murray Bay had become, alas,
+almost fashionable.
+
+It still seemed to have no past. True, near the village church, a
+fair-sized house stood, embowered in trees, with a fine view out over
+the bay and the wide St. Lawrence. A high fence shut in a beautiful old
+garden, with a few great trees: as one drove past one got a glimpse of
+shady walks and old-fashioned flowers. The extensive out-buildings near
+this manor house, stables, carriage-house, dairy, showed that the
+establishment was fairly large. There were sleek cattle in the farm
+yard. On one of the out-buildings was a small belfry, with a bell to
+summon the work-people from afar to meals, and this seemed like the
+olden times when the seigneur fed his labourers under his own roof. On
+making a formal call at the manor house one noted that some of the rooms
+were of fine proportions and that a good many old portraits and
+miniatures hung on the walls. This all spoke of a past; and yet of it
+one asked little and knew nothing.
+
+Just across the bay stood another manor house; of stone, too, in this
+case not concealed by a covering of wood. Thick walls crowned by a
+mansard roof spoke of a respectable age. This manor house, also looked
+out on the bay and across the St. Lawrence. One knew that it was named
+Mount Murray Manor, while that on the right bank of the river Murray was
+called Murray Bay Manor. It was said vaguely that a Colonel Fraser had
+dwelt at Mount Murray and a Colonel Nairne at Murray Bay; but all that
+one heard was loose tradition and there were no Nairnes or Frasers of
+whom one might ask questions. One could see that, in both places,
+something like an old world dignity of life had in the past been kept
+up.
+
+Making a call at the Murray Bay Manor House, I was told one day of a
+manuscript volume in which the first seigneur had copied some of his
+letters. I begged to be allowed to spend an afternoon or two in looking
+through it. I went and went again. To me the book was absorbing. It told
+the story of the first people of British origin who went to settle at
+Malbaie, which they named Murray Bay, just after the British conquest;
+of the career of a soldier brother of Colonel Nairne who died in India
+not long after Plassey; of campaigns fought by Colonel Nairne during the
+period of the American Revolution; of his plans and hopes as the ruler
+of the little community where he settled. When I had read the book
+through, I asked if there was not something more. Yes, there were some
+old letters, preserved in a lumber room at the top of the house. These
+I was allowed to see. This task, too, was of great interest and I spent
+the better part of a summer holiday reading, analyzing, and copying
+letters. Some of them told of the schoolboy days, in Edinburgh, of the
+old Colonel's son and heir, the second seigneur, of this son's life at
+Gibraltar at the time when Trafalgar was fought, of his return to
+Canada, of campaigns in the war of 1812. Then there were touching
+letters from others to tell how he fell at the battle of Crysler's Farm.
+So intimate were the letters that one experienced again the hopes and
+fears of more than a century ago. In time, out of the dimness in which
+all had been shrouded, Murray Bay's history became clear. Of course one
+had to seek some information elsewhere, especially in attempting an
+analysis of French Canadian village life. But the story told in this
+volume is based chiefly on the papers read during that holiday. Not only
+did they enable one to reconstruct the story of a spot made almost
+sacred by the joys of many a delightful summer; they furnished, besides,
+an outline of the tragic history of a Canadian family. Here at Murray
+Bay, a century and a half ago, a brave and distinguished British officer
+secured a great estate and made his home. In his letters we read almost
+from day to day of his plans. He had a strong heart and a deep faith. He
+reared a large family and built not merely for himself but for his
+posterity. And yet, just one hundred years after he began his work at
+Murray Bay, the last of his descendants was laid in the grave and the
+family became extinct. It is the fashion of our modern fiction to end
+the tale in sorrow not in joy. Perhaps the fashion has a more real basis
+in fact than we like to think. At any rate this true story of the
+seigneur of Murray Bay ends with the closed record of his family history
+on a granite monument in Quebec. There is no one living for whom the
+tale has the special interest that attaches to one's ancestors.
+
+I have received help from many but my deepest obligation is to Mr. E.J.
+Duggan, the present seigneur of Murray Bay, for his great kindness in
+permitting me to use the letters and papers in the Manor House. I owe
+much to the Right Honourable Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, who has taught me,
+in many holiday outings, most of what appreciation I have learned for
+French Canadian village life, and has corrected errors into which I
+should otherwise have fallen. So also have Mr. W.H. Blake, K.C., of
+Toronto, a good authority on all that concerns life at Murray Bay, and
+M. J.-Edmond Roy, Assistant Archivist at Ottawa, whose "Histoire de la
+Seigneurie de Lauzon" and many other works relating to the Province of
+Quebec entitle him to the rank of its foremost historical scholar. To
+another authority on the seigniorial system in Canada, Professor W.
+Bennett Munro, of Harvard University, I am much indebted for information
+readily given. My colleagues Professor W.J. Alexander, Ph.D., of
+University College, and Professor Pelham Edgar, Ph.D., of Victoria
+College, Toronto, have given me the benefit of their discriminating
+criticism. Dr. A.G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion Archivist, and the Rev.
+Abbe A.E. Gosselin of Laval University, have responded with unfailing
+courtesy to my numerous calls upon them, and Mr. John Fraser Reeve, the
+great-grandson of Colonel Malcolm Fraser, who figures so prominently in
+the story, has given me invaluable information about the Fraser family.
+Dr. J.M. Harper and M. P.-B. Casgrain, of Quebec, and Mr. A.C.
+Casselman, of Toronto, have also aided me on some difficult points. To
+the Honourable Edward Blake, K.C., of Toronto, I am indebted for
+reproductions of some of his paintings of scenes at Murray Bay, and to
+the Honourable Dudley Murray, of London, England, for a photograph of
+the portrait of General Murray preserved in the General's family.
+
+Toronto, _July, 1908_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE FOUNDING OF MALBAIE
+
+The situation of Malbaie.--The physical features of
+Malbaie.--Jacques Cartier at Malbaie.--Champlain at
+Malbaie.--The first seigneur of Malbaie.--A new policy for
+settling Canada.--The Sieur de Comporte, seigneur of
+Malbaie, sentenced to death in France.--His career in
+Canada.--His plans for Malbaie.--Hazeur, Seigneur of
+Malbaie.--Malbaie becomes a King's Post.--A Jesuit's
+description of Malbaie in 1750.--The burning of Malbaie by
+the British in 1759.                                           1
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE TWO HIGHLAND SEIGNEURS AT MALBAIE
+
+Pitt's use of Highlanders in the Seven Years' War.--The
+origin of Fraser's Highlanders.--The career of Lord
+Lovat.--Lovat's son Simon Fraser and other Frasers at
+Quebec.--Malcolm Fraser and John Nairne future seigneurs of
+Malbaie.--The Highlanders and Wolfe's victory.--The
+Highlanders in the winter of 1759-60.--Malcolm Fraser on
+Murray's defeat in April, 1760.--The return of Canadian
+seigneurs to France.--General Murray buys Canadian
+seigniories.--Nairne and Fraser at Malbaie.--Their grants
+from Murray.                                                  22
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOHN NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY
+
+Colonel Nairne's portrait.--His letters.--The first Scottish
+settlers at Malbaie.--Nairne's finance.--His tasks.--The
+cure's work.--The Scottish settlers and their French
+wives.--The Church and Education.--Nairne's efforts to make
+Malbaie Protestant.--His war on idleness.--The character of
+the habitant.--Fishing at Malbaie.--Trade at
+Malbaie.--Farming at Malbaie.--Nairne's marriage,--Career
+and death in India of Robert Nairne.--The Quebec Act and its
+consequences for the habitant.                                40
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JOHN NAIRNE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
+
+Nairne's work among the French Canadians.--He becomes Major
+of the Royal Highland Emigrants.--Arnold's march through the
+wilderness to Quebec.--Quebec during the Siege,
+1775-76.--The habitants and the Americans.--Montgomery's
+plans.--The assault on December 31st, 1775.--Malcolm Fraser
+gives the alarm in Quebec.--Montgomery's death.--Arnold's
+attack.--Nairne's heroism.--Arnold's failure.--The American
+fire-ship.--The arrival of a British fleet.--The retreat of
+the Americans.--Nairne's later service in the War.--Isle aux
+Noix and Carleton Island.--Sir John Johnson and the
+desolation of New York.--Nairne and the American prisoners
+at Murray Bay.--Their escape and capture.--Nairne and the
+Loyalists.--The end of the War.--Nairne's retirement to
+Murray Bay.                                                   62
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN NAIRNE
+
+Nairne's careful education of his children.--His son John
+enters the army.--Nairne's counsels to his son.--John Nairne
+goes to India.--His death.--Nairne's declining years.--His
+activities at Murray Bay.--His income.--His daughter
+Christine and Quebec society.--The isolation of Murray Bay
+in Winter.--Signals across the river.--Nairne's
+reading.--His notes about current events.--The fear of a
+French invasion of England.--Thoughts of flight from
+Scotland to Murray Bay.--Nairne's last letter, April 20th,
+1802.--His death and burial at Quebec.                        93
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THOMAS NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY
+
+His education in Scotland.--His winning character.--He
+enters the army.--Malcolm Fraser's counsels to a young
+soldier.--Thomas Nairne's life at Gibraltar.--His desire to
+retire from the army.--His return to Canada in 1810-11.--His
+life at Quebec.--His summer at Murray Bay, 1811.--His
+resolve to remain in the Army.--Beginning of the War of
+1812.--Captain Nairne on Lake Ontario.--Quebec Society and
+the proposed flight from danger to Murray Bay.--Anxiety at
+Murray Bay.--The progress of the War.--An American attack on
+Kingston.--Captain Nairne on the Niagara frontier.--Naval
+War on Lake Ontario.--Nairne's description of a naval
+engagement.--Sense of impending disaster at Murray Bay.--The
+American advance on Montreal by the St. Lawrence.--Nairne's
+regiment a part of the opposing British force.--The Battle
+of Crysler's Farm.--Nairne's death.--His body taken to
+Quebec.--The grief of the family at Murray Bay.--The
+funeral.                                                     124
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A FRENCH CANADIAN VILLAGE
+
+Life at Murray Bay after Captain Nairne's death.--Letters
+from Europe.--Death of Malcolm Fraser.--Death of Colonel
+Nairne's widow and children.--His grandson John Nairne,
+seigneur.--Village Life.--The Church's Influence.--The
+Habitant's tenacity.--His cottage.--His labours.--His
+amusements.--The Church's missionary work in the
+Village.--The powers of the bishop.--His visitations.--The
+organization of the Parish.--The powers of the
+_fabrique_.--Lay control of Church finance.--The cures'
+tithe.--The best intellects enter the Church.--A native
+Canadian clergy.--The cure's social life.--The Church and
+Temperance Reform.--The diligence of the cures.--The
+habitant's taste for the supernatural.--The belief in
+goblins.--Prayer in the family.--The habitant as voter.--The
+office of Churchwarden.--The Church's influence in
+elections.--The seigneur's position.--The habitant's
+obligations to him.--Rent day and New Year's Day.--The
+seigneur's social rank.--The growth of discontent in the
+villages.--The evils of Seigniorial Tenure.--Agitation
+against the system.--Its abolition in 1854.--The last of the
+Nairnes.--The Nairne tomb in Quebec.                         168
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE COMING OF THE PLEASURE SEEKERS
+
+Pleasure seeking at Murray Bay.--A fisherman's experience in
+1830.--New visitors.--Fishing in a mountain lake.--Camp
+life.--The Upper Murray.--Canoeing.--Running the
+rapids.--Walks and drives.--Golf.--A rainy day.--The
+habitant and his visitors.                                   222
+
+
+AUTHORITIES                                                  243
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+APPENDIX A (p. 31)   The Journal of Malcolm Fraser,
+                        First Seigneur of Mount Murray,
+                        Malbaie.                             249
+
+APPENDIX B (p. 38)   Title Deed of the Seigniory of
+                        Murray Bay, granted to Captain
+                        John Nairne.                         271
+
+APPENDIX C (p. 78)   The Siege of Quebec in 1775-76.
+                        Colonel Nairne's Narrative.          273
+
+APPENDIX D (p. 98)   Memorandum of Colonel Nairne,
+                        5th April, 1795, for his son
+                        John Nairne in regard to
+                        military duty.                       277
+
+APPENDIX E (p. 104)  The "Porpoise" (Beluga or
+                        White Whale) Fishery on the
+                        St. Lawrence.                        279
+
+APPENDIX F (p. 122)  The Prayer of Colonel Nairne.           286
+
+APPENDIX G (p. 144)  The Cures of Malbaie.                   287
+
+
+INDEX                                                        291
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+COLONEL JOHN NAIRNE                                 Frontispiece
+(From the Oil Painting in the Manor House at Murray Bay.)
+                                                            PAGE
+
+CAP A L'AIGLE FROM THE WEST SHORE OF MURRAY BAY                6
+(From the Water Colour by the late L.R. O'Brien, in the
+possession of the Hon. Edward Blake, K.C.)
+
+VIEW ACROSS MURRAY BAY FROM THE CAP A L'AIGLE SHORE           21
+(From an Oil Painting by E. Wyly Grier, in the possession of
+the Hon. Edward Blake.)
+
+GENERAL JAMES MURRAY                                          35
+(From an Oil Painting preserved in the General's Family.)
+
+THE MANOR HOUSE AT MURRAY BAY                                 74
+(From amateur photographs.)
+
+VIEW FROM POINTE AU PIC UP MURRAY BAY                        102
+(From a Water Colour by the late L.R. O'Brien in the
+possession of the Hon. Edward Blake.)
+
+THE GOLF LINKS AT MURRAY BAY                                 237
+(From a Photograph by W. Notman and Son, Montreal.)
+
+
+MAPS
+
+THE ST. LAWRENCE FROM QUEBEC TO MURRAY BAY                     1
+
+SKETCH MAP OF LAKE ONTARIO AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE TO
+ILLUSTRATE THE WAR OF 1812-14                                148
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ST. LAWRENCE FROM QUEBEC TO MURRAY BAY]
+
+
+
+
+A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE FOUNDING OF MALBAIE
+
+     The situation of Malbaie.--The physical features of
+     Malbaie.--Jacques Cartier at Malbaie.--Champlain at Malbaie.--The
+     first seigneur of Malbaie.--A new policy for settling Canada.--The
+     Sieur de Comporte, seigneur of Malbaie, sentenced to death in
+     France.--His career in Canada.--His plans for Malbaie.--Hazeur,
+     Seigneur of Malbaie.--Malbaie becomes a King's Post.--A Jesuit's
+     description of Malbaie in 1750.--The burning of Malbaie by the
+     British in 1759.
+
+
+If one is not in too great a hurry it is wise to take the steamer--not
+the train--at Quebec and travel by it the eighty miles down the St.
+Lawrence to Malbaie, or Murray Bay, as the English call it, somewhat
+arrogantly rejecting the old French name used since the pioneer days of
+Champlain. This means an early morning start and six or seven hours--the
+steamers are not swift--on that great river. Only less than a mile apart
+are its rugged banks at Quebec but, even then, they seem to contract the
+mighty torrent of water flowing between them. Once past Quebec the river
+broadens into a great basin, across which we see the head of the
+beautiful Island of Orleans. We skirt, on the south side, the twenty
+miles of the island's well wooded shore, dotted with the cottages of
+the habitants, stretched irregularly along the winding road. Church
+spires rise at intervals; the people are Catholic to a man. Once past
+this island we begin to note changes. Hardly any longer is the St.
+Lawrence a river; rather is it now an inlet of the sea; the water has
+become salt; the air is fresher. So wide apart are the river's shores
+that the cottages far away to the south seem only white specks.
+
+Hugging the north shore closely we draw in under towering Cap Tourmente,
+fir-clad, rising nearly two thousand feet above us; a mighty obstacle it
+has always been to communication by land on this side of the river. Soon
+comes a great cleft in the mountains, and before us is Baie St. Paul,
+opening up a wide vista to the interior. We are getting into the Malbaie
+country for Isle aux Coudres, an island some six miles long, opposite
+Baie St. Paul, was formerly linked with Malbaie under one missionary
+priest. The north shore continues high and rugged. After passing Les
+Eboulements, a picturesque village, far above us on the mountain side,
+we round Cap aux Oies, in English, unromantically, Goose Cape, and, far
+in front, lies a great headland, sloping down to the river in bold
+curves. On this side of the headland we can see nestling in under the
+cliff what, in the distance, seems only a tiny quay. It is the wharf of
+Malbaie. The open water beyond it, stretching across to Cap a l'Aigle,
+marks the mouth of the bay. The great river, now twelve miles broad,
+with a surging tide, rising sometimes eighteen or twenty feet, has the
+strength and majesty almost of Old Ocean himself.
+
+As we land we see nothing striking. There is just a long wharf with some
+cottages clustered at the foot of the cliff. But when we have ascended
+the short stretch of winding road that leads over the barrier of cliff
+we discover the real beauties of Malbaie. Before us lies the bay's
+semi-circle--perhaps five miles in extent; stretching far inland is a
+broad valley, with sides sloping up to rounded fir-clad mountain tops.
+It is the break in the mountains and the views up the valley that give
+the place its peculiar beauty. When the tide is out the bay itself is
+only a great stretch of brown sand, with many scattered boulders, and
+gleaming silver pools of water. Looking down upon it, one sees a small
+river winding across the waste of sand and rocks. It has risen in the
+far upland three thousand feet above this level and has made an arduous
+downward way, now by narrow gorges, more rarely across open spaces,
+where it crawls lazily in the summer sunlight:--_les eaux mortes_, the
+French Canadians call such stretches. It bursts at length through the
+last barrier of mountains, a stream forty or fifty yards wide, and flows
+noisily, for some ten miles, in successive rapids, down this valley,
+here at last to mingle its brown waters with the ice-cold, steel-tinted,
+St. Lawrence.
+
+When the tide is in, the bay becomes a shallow arm of the great
+river,--the sea, we call it. The French are better off than we; they
+have the word "_fleuve_" for the St. Lawrence;--other streams are
+"_rivieres_." Almost daily, at high water, one may watch small schooners
+which carry on the St. Lawrence trade head up the bay. They work in
+close to shore, drop their anchors and wait for the tide to go out. It
+leaves them high and dry, and tilted sometimes at an angle which
+suggests that everything within must be topsy-turvy, until the vessel is
+afloat again. With a strong wind blowing from the north-east the bay is
+likely to be, at high tide, an extremely lively place for the mariner; a
+fact which helps perhaps to explain the sinister French name of Malbaie.
+The huge waves, coming with a sweep of many miles up the broad St.
+Lawrence, hurl themselves on the west shore with surprising vehemence,
+and work destruction to anything not well afloat in deep water, or
+beyond the highest of high water marks. At such a time how many a
+hapless small craft, left incautiously too near the shore, has been
+hammered to pieces between waves and rocks!
+
+Tired wayfarers surveying this remote and lovely scene have fancied
+themselves pioneers in something like a new world. In reality, here is
+the oldest of old worlds, in which pigmy man is not even of yesterday,
+but only of to-day. This majestic river, the mountains clothed in
+perennial green, the blue and purple tints so delicate and transient as
+the light changes, have occupied this scene for thousands of centuries.
+No other part of our mother earth is more ancient. The Laurentian
+Mountains reared their heads, it may be, long before life appeared
+anywhere on this peopled earth; no fossil is found in all their huge
+mass. In some mighty eruption of fire their strata have been strangely
+twisted. Since then sea and river, frost and ice, have held high
+carnival. Huge boulders, alien in formation to the rocks about them,
+have been dropped high up on the mountain sides by mighty glaciers, and
+lie to-day, a source of unfailing wonder to the unlearned as to how they
+came to be there.
+
+Man appeared at last upon the scene; the Indian, and then, long after,
+the European. In 1535, Jacques Cartier, the first European, as far as we
+know, to ascend the St. Lawrence, creeping slowly from the Saguenay up
+towards the Indian village of Stadacona, on the spot where now is
+Quebec, must have noted the wide gap in the mountains which makes the
+Malbaie valley. Not far from Malbaie, he saw the so-called "porpoises,"
+or white whales, (beluga, French, _marsouin_) that still disport
+themselves in great numbers in these waters, come puffing to the surface
+and writhe their whole length into view like miniature sea-serpents.
+They have heads, Cartier says, with no very great accuracy, "of the
+style of a greyhound," they are of spotless white and are found, he was
+told (incorrectly) only here in all the world. He anchored at Isle aux
+Coudres where he saw "an incalculable number of huge turtles." He
+admired its great and fair trees, now gone, alas, and gave the island
+its name--"the Isle of Hazel Nuts"--which we still use. For long years
+after Cartier, Malbaie remained a resort of its native savages only.
+Perhaps an occasional trader came to give these primitive people, in
+exchange for their valuable furs, European commodities, generally of
+little worth. In time the Europeans learned the great value of this
+trade and of the land which offered it. So France determined to colonize
+Canada and in 1608, when Champlain founded a tiny colony at Quebec, the
+most Christian King had announced a resolution to hold the country. Ere
+long Malbaie was to have a European owner.
+
+[Illustration: CAP A L'AIGLE FROM THE WEST SHORE OF MURRAY BAY
+
+"A great headland sloping down to the river in bold curves."]
+
+As Champlain went up from Tadousac to make his settlement of Quebec he
+noted Malbaie as sufficiently spacious. But its many rocks, he thought,
+made it unnavigable, except for the canoes of the Indians, whose light
+craft of bark can surmount all kinds of difficulties. Perhaps Champlain
+is a little severe on Malbaie which, when one knows how, is navigable
+enough for coasting schooners, but his observations are natural for a
+passing traveller. In the years after Quebec was founded no more can be
+said of Malbaie than that it was on the route from Tadousac to Quebec
+and must have been visited by many a vessel passing up to New France's
+small capital on the edge of the wilderness. In the summer of 1629 the
+occasional savages who haunted Malbaie might have seen an unwonted
+spectacle. Three English ships, under Lewis Kirke, had passed up the
+river and to him, Champlain, with a half-starved force of only sixteen
+men, had been obliged to surrender Quebec. Kirke was taking his captives
+down to Tadousac when, opposite Malbaie, he met a French ship coming to
+the rescue. A tremendous cannonade followed, the first those ancient
+hills had heard. It ended in disaster to France, and Kirke sailed on to
+Tadousac with the French ship as a prize.
+
+When peace came France began more seriously the task of settling Canada.
+Though inevitably Malbaie would soon be colonized, it was still very
+difficult of access. A wide stretch of mountain and forest separated it
+from Quebec; not for nearly two hundred years after Champlain's time was
+a road built across this barrier. Moreover France's first years of rule
+in Canada are marked by conspicuous failure in colonizing work. The
+trading Company--the Company of New France or of "One Hundred
+Associates"--to which the country was handed over in 1633, thought of
+the fur trade, of fisheries, of profits--of anything rather than
+settlement, and never lived up to its promises to bring in colonists.
+It made huge grants of land with a very light heart. In 1653 a grant was
+made of the seigniory of Malbaie to Jean Bourdon, Surveyor-General of
+the Colony. But Bourdon seems not to have thought it worth while to make
+any attempt to settle his seigniory and, apparently for lack of
+settlement, the grant lapsed. Even the Company of New France treasured
+some idea that would-be land owners in a colony had duties to perform.
+
+After thirty years France at length grew tired of the incompetence of
+the Company and in 1663 made a radical change. The great Colbert was
+already the guiding spirit in France and colonial plans he made his
+special care. Louis XIV too was already dreaming of a great over-sea
+Empire. The first step was to take over from the trading Company the
+direct government of the colony. The next was to get the right men to do
+the work in New France. An excellent start was made when, in 1665, Jean
+Talon was sent out to Canada as Intendant. He had a genius for
+organization. Though in rank below the Governor he, with the title of
+Intendant, did the real work of ruling; the Governor discharged its
+ceremonial functions. Talon had a policy. He wished to colonize, to
+develop industry, to promote agriculture. In his capacious brain new and
+progressive ideas were working. He brought in soldiers who became
+settlers, among them the first real seigneur of Malbaie. An adequate
+military force, the Carignan regiment, came out from France to awe into
+submission the aggressive Iroquois, who long had made Montreal, and even
+Quebec itself, unsafe by their sudden and blood-thirsty attacks.
+Travelling by canoe and batteau the regiment went from Quebec up the
+whole length of the St. Lawrence, landed on the south shore of Lake
+Ontario, and marched into the Iroquois country. With amazement and
+terror, those arrogant savages saw winding along their forest paths the
+glittering array of France. Some of their villages were laid low by
+fire. The French regiment had accomplished its task; with no spirit left
+the Iroquois made peace.
+
+A good many officers of the Carignan regiment, with but slender
+prospects in France, decided to stay in Canada and to this day their
+names--Chambly, Vercheres, Longueuil, Sorel, Berthier and others are
+conspicuous in the geography of the Province of Quebec. Malbaie was
+granted to a soldier of fortune, the Sieur de Comporte, who came to
+Canada at this time, but apparently was not an officer of the Carignan
+Regiment. His outlook at Malbaie cannot have been considered promising,
+for Pierre Boucher, who in 1664 published an interesting account of New
+France, declared the whole region between Baie St. Paul and the Saguenay
+to be so rugged and mountainous as to make it unfit for civilized
+habitation. But Philippe Gaultier, Sieur de Comporte, was of the right
+material to be a good colonist. Born in 1641 he was twenty-four years of
+age when he came to Canada. Already he had had some stirring adventures,
+one of which might well have proved grimly fatal had he not found a
+refuge across the sea. Comporte, then serving as a volunteer in a
+Company of Infantry led by his uncle, La Fouille, was involved in one of
+the bloody brawls of the time that Richelieu had made such stern efforts
+to suppress. The Company was in garrison at La Motte-Saint-Heray in
+Poitou. On July 9th, 1665, one of its members, Lanoraye, came in with
+the tale of an insult offered to the company by a civilian in the town.
+Lanoraye had been marching through the streets with a drum beating, in
+order to secure recruits, when one Bonneau, the local judge, attacked
+him, and took away the drum. Lanoraye rushed to arouse his fellow
+soldiers. When Comporte and half a dozen other hot-heads had listened to
+his tale, they cried with one voice, "Let us go and demand the drum. He
+must give it up." So at eight or nine o'clock at night they set out to
+look for Bonneau. They came upon him unexpectedly in the streets of the
+town. He was accompanied by seven or eight persons with whom he had
+supped and all were armed with swords, pistols or other weapons. When
+Lanoraye demanded the drum, Bonneau was defiant and told him to go away
+or he should chastise him. The inevitable fight followed. Comporte,
+whose own account we have, says that it lasted some time and the results
+were fatal. Comporte declares that he himself struck no blows but the
+fact remains that two of Bonneau's party were so severely wounded that
+they died. Comporte and the rest of the Company soon went to Canada. In
+their absence he and others were sentenced to death.
+
+In Canada he appears to have behaved himself. In France a simple
+volunteer, in New France he became an important citizen. Talon trusted
+him and made him Quarter-Master-General. In 1672 Comporte received an
+enormous grant of land stretching along the St. Lawrence from Cap aux
+Oies to Cap a l'Aigle, a distance of some eighteen miles, including
+Malbaie and a good deal more. About the same time he married Marie
+Bazire, daughter of one of the chief merchants in the colony, by whom he
+had a numerous family. So eminently respectable was he that we find him
+churchwarden at Quebec. In time he retired from trade, in which he had
+engaged, and became a judge of the newly established Court of the
+Prevote at Quebec. This was not doing badly for a man under sentence of
+death. But over him still hung this affair in France and, in 1680, he
+petitioned the King to have the sentence annulled. For this petition he
+secured the support of the families of the men killed in the quarrel
+fifteen years earlier. In 1681 Louis XIV's pardon was registered with
+solemn ceremonial at Quebec, and at last Comporte was no longer an
+outlaw.
+
+He had plans to settle his great fief. Working in his brain no doubt
+were dreams of a feudal domain, of a seigniorial chateau looking out
+across the great river, of respectful tenants paying annual dues to
+their lord in labour, kind, and money, of a parish church in which over
+the seigniorial pew should be displayed his coat of arms. But if these
+pictures inspired his fancy and cheered his spirit, they were never to
+become realities. In 1687 he was, apparently, in need of money, and he
+resolved to sell two-thirds of his interest in the seigniory of Malbaie.
+The price was a pitiful 1000 livres, or some $200, and the purchasers
+were Francois Hazeur, Pierre Soumande and Louis Marchand of Quebec, who
+were henceforth to get two-thirds of the profits of the seigniory. Then,
+in 1687, still young--he was only forty-six--Comporte died, as did also
+his wife, leaving a young family apparently but ill provided for. His
+name still survives at Malbaie. The portion of the village on the left
+bank of the river above the bridge is called Comporte, and a lovely
+little lake, nestling on the top of a mountain beyond the Grand Fond,
+and unsurpassed for the excellence of its trout fishing, is called Lac a
+Comporte; it may be that well-nigh two and a half centuries ago the
+first seigneur of Malbaie followed an Indian trail to this lake and wet
+a line in its brown and rippling waters.
+
+Comporte and his partners in the seigniory had planned great things.
+They had begun the erection of a mill, an enterprise which Comporte's
+heirs could not continue. So the guardian of the children determined to
+sell at auction their third of the seigniory. The sale apparently took
+place in Quebec in October, 1688. We have the record of the bids made.
+Hazeur began with 410 livres; one Riverin offered 430 livres; after a
+few other bids Hazeur raised his to 480 livres; then Riverin offered 490
+and finally the property was sold to Hazeur for 500 livres. Malbaie was
+cheap enough; one third of a property more than one hundred and fifty
+square miles in extent sold for about $100! In 1700 for a sum of 10,000
+livres ($2,000) Hazeur bought out all other interests in the seigniory
+and became its sole owner. Its value had greatly improved in 22 years.
+
+Of Hazeur we know but little. He was a leading merchant at Quebec and
+was interested in the fishing for "porpoises" or white whales. When he
+died in 1708 he left money to the Seminary at Quebec on condition that
+from this endowment, forever, two boys should be educated; for the
+intervening two centuries the condition has been faithfully observed;
+one knows not how many youths owe their start in life to the gift of
+the former seigneur of Malbaie. There, however, no memory or tradition
+of him survives. In his time some land was cleared. The saw mill and a
+grist mill, begun by Comporte, were completed and stood, it seems, near
+the mouth of the little river now known as the Fraser but then as the
+Ruisseau a la Chute. Civilization had made at Malbaie an inroad on the
+forest and was struggling to advance.
+
+On Hazeur's death in 1708 his two sons, both of them priests, inherited
+Malbaie. Meanwhile the government developed a policy for the region. It
+resolved to set aside, as a reserve, a vast domain stretching from the
+Mingan seigniory below Tadousac westward to Les Eboulements, and
+extending northward to Hudson Bay. The wealth of forest, lake, and
+river, in this tract furnished abundant promise for the fur and other
+trade of which the government was to have here a complete monopoly.
+Malbaie was necessary to round out the territory and so the heirs of
+Hazeur were invited to sell back the seigniory to the government. The
+sale was completed in October, 1724, when the government of New France,
+acting through M. Begon, the Intendant, for a sum of 20,000 livres
+(about $4,000) found itself possessed of Malbaie "as if it had never
+been granted," of a saw mill and a grist mill, of houses, stables and
+barns, gardens and farm implements, grain, furniture, live stock,
+cleared land, cut wood and all other products of human industry there
+in evidence.[1]
+
+Within the reserve, in addition to Malbaie, were a number of trading
+posts--Tadousac, Chicoutimi, Lake St. John, Mistassini, &c. In this
+great tract the government expected to reap large profits from its
+monopoly of trade with the Indians. Some of the fertile land was to be
+used for farms which should produce food supplies for the posts. The
+Intendant had sanguine hopes that the profit from trade and agriculture
+would aid appreciably in meeting the expense of government. It was, we
+may be well assured, an expectation never realized.
+
+We get a glimpse of Malbaie in 1750 as a King's post. There were two
+farms, one called La Malbaie, the other La Comporte. The two farmers
+were both in the King's service and, in the absence of other diversions,
+quarrelled ceaselessly. The region, wrote the Jesuit Father Claude
+Godefroi Coquart, who was sent, in 1750, to inspect the posts, is the
+finest in the world. He reported, in particular, that the farm of
+Malbaie had good soil, excellent facilities for raising cattle, and
+other advantages. Only a very little land had been cleared, just enough
+wheat being raised to supply the needs of the farmer and his assistants.
+The place should be made more productive, M. Coquart goes on to say, and
+the present farmer, Joseph Dufour, is just the man to do it. He is able
+and intelligent and if only--and here we come to the inherent defect in
+trying to do such pioneer work by paid officials who had no final
+responsibility--he were offered better pay the farm could be made to
+produce good results. The old quarrel with the farmer at La Comporte had
+been settled; now the farmer of Malbaie was the superior officer,
+rivalry had ceased, and all was peace.
+
+Coquart gives an estimate of the farming operations at Malbaie which is
+of special interest as showing that, if the old regime in Canada did not
+produce good results, it was not for lack of criticism. Better cattle
+should be raised, he says; at Malbaie one does not see oxen as fine as
+those at Beaupre, near Quebec, or on the south shore. The pigs too are
+extremely small, the very fattest hardly weighing 180 pounds; in
+contrast, at La Petite Riviere, above Baie St. Paul, the pigs are huge;
+one could have good breeds without great expense; it costs no more to
+feed them and [a truism] there would be more pork! Of sheep too hardly
+fifty are kept at Malbaie through the winter; there should be two or
+three hundred. From the two farms come yearly only thirty or forty pairs
+of chickens.
+
+Father Coquart's census is as rigorous and unsparing of detail as the
+Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror. He tells exactly what the
+Malbaie farm can produce in a year; the record for the year of grace
+1750 is "4 or 6 oxen; 25 sheep, 2 or 3 cows, 1200 pounds of pork, 1400
+to 1500 pounds of butter, one barrel of lard,"--certainly not much to
+help a paternal government. The salmon fishery should be developed, says
+Coquart. Now the farmers get their own supply and nothing more. Nets
+should be used and great quantities of salmon might be salted down in
+good seasons. Happily, conditions are mending. The previous farmer had
+let things go to rack and ruin but now one sees neither thistles nor
+black wheat; all the fences are in place. Joseph Dufour has a special
+talent for making things profitable. If he can be induced to continue
+his services, it will be a benefit to his employer. But he is not
+contented. Last year he could not make it pay and wished to leave.
+Nearly all his wages are used in the support of his family. He has three
+grown-up daughters who help in carrying on the establishment, and a boy
+for the stables. The best paid of these gets only 50 livres (about $10)
+a year; she should get at least 80 livres, M. Coquart thinks. Dufour has
+on the farm eight sheep of his own but even of these the King takes the
+wool, and actually the farmer has had to pay for what wool his family
+used. Surely he should be allowed to keep at least half the wool of his
+own sheep! If it was the policy of the Crown to grant lands along the
+river of Malbaie there are many people who would like those fertile
+areas, but there is danger that they would trade with the Indians which
+should be strictly forbidden. So runs M. Coquart's report. It was
+rendered to one of the greatest rascals in New France, the Intendant
+Bigot, but he was a rascal who did his official tasks with some
+considerable degree of thoroughness and insight. He knew what were the
+conditions at Malbaie even if he did not mend them.
+
+After 1750 the curtain falls again upon Malbaie and we see nothing
+until, a few years later, the desolation of war has come, war that was
+to bring to Canada, and, with it, to Malbaie, new masters of British
+blood. After long mutterings the war broke out openly in 1756. In those
+days the farmer at Malbaie who looked out, as we look out, upon the
+mighty river would see great ships passing up and down. Some of them
+differed from the merchant ships to which his eye was accustomed. They
+stood high in the water. Ships came near the north shore in those days
+and he could see grim black openings in their sides which meant cannon.
+Already Britain had almost driven France from the sea and these French
+ships, which ascended the St. Lawrence, were few. Then, in 1759,
+happened what had been long-expected and talked about. Signal fires
+blazed at night on both sides of the St. Lawrence to give the alarm,
+when not French, but British ships, sailed up the river, a huge fleet.
+They stopped at Tadousac and then slowly and cautiously filed past
+Malbaie. On a summer day the crowd of white sails scattered on the
+surface of the river made an animated scene. In wonder our farmer and
+his helpers watched the ships silently advance to their goal. There were
+39 men-of-war, 10 auxiliaries, 70 transports and a multitude of smaller
+craft carrying some 27,000 men; it was the mightiest array Britain had
+ever sent across the ocean. New France was doomed.
+
+The French fought bravely a campaign really hopeless. Montcalm massed
+his chief force at Quebec and there awaited attack. In vain had he
+appealed to France for further help; he was left unaided to struggle
+with a foe who had command of the sea, whose fleet could pass up and
+down before Quebec with the tide and keep the French guards for twenty
+miles in constant nervous tension as to where a landing might be made.
+Wolfe carried on his work relentlessly. He warned the Canadians that he
+would ravage their villages if they did not remain neutral. Neutral it
+was almost impossible for them to be for the French urged them in the
+other direction. With stern rigour, Wolfe meted out to them his
+punishment. He sent parties to burn houses and destroy crops and Malbaie
+was not spared. On August 15th, 1759, Captain Gorham reported to Wolfe
+that with 300 men, one half of them Rangers from the English colonies,
+the other half Highlanders, he had devastated the north shore of the St.
+Lawrence. The soldiers did their work thoroughly. From Baie St. Paul,
+the last considerable village east of Quebec, they went on thirty miles
+to Malbaie where they destroyed almost all of the houses. We do not know
+whether the competent Dufour was still the farmer at Malbaie. But all
+the fine pictures of better cattle, better pigs and sheep, better
+farming, better fishing, ended with the applying of the British
+soldiers' torch to the wooden buildings: much of the settlement went up
+in smoke. Some of the cattle, pigs and sheep found their way perhaps to
+Wolfe's commissariat. But a good many were left and no doubt they are
+the ancestors of many of the cattle, sheep and pigs we see at Malbaie
+still. This first visit of Americans and Highlanders to Malbaie has its
+special interest. A few years later Highlanders came again, not to
+destroy but to settle, and to become the ancestors of families that to
+this day show their Highland origin in their names and in their
+faces, but never a trace of it in their speech or in their customs.[2]
+The Americans were longer in coming back. But, after more than a hundred
+years they, too, were to come again, not to destroy but in a very
+literal sense to build; their many charming cottages now stretch along
+the shore of the Bay that looks across to Cap a l'Aigle.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ACROSS MURRAY BAY FROM THE CAP A L'AIGLE SHORE
+
+(The farther point: Cap aux Oies, the nearer Pointe au Pic)]
+
+[Footnote 1: Exact information in regard to the brothers Hazeur, who
+have a place in this story merely because they held the seigniory of
+Malbaie, may be found in articles by Mgr. H. Tetu, in the _Bulletin des
+Recherches Historiques_ (Levis, Quebec) for August, 1907, and the
+following numbers. They were the Canon Joseph Thierry Hazeur, born in
+1680, and Pierre Hazeur de L'Orme, born in 1682, both apparently at
+Quebec. The younger brother took the name de L'Orme from his mother's
+family. He was for many years the representative in France of the
+Chapter of the Cathedral at Quebec, which held, from the Pope and the
+King, four or five abbeys in France. His copious letters published by
+Mgr. Tetu illustrate with some vividness details of the ecclesiastical
+life of the time. For several years after the British conquest of Canada
+the Quebec Chapter continued to receive the revenues of the Abbey of
+Meaubec. The elder Hazeur, less able than his brother, was Cure at Point
+aux Trembles. An invalid, he spent his later years chiefly in Quebec.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Malcolm Fraser, an officer in the 78th Highlanders and
+afterwards first seigneur of Mount Murray, one of the two seigniories
+into which Malbaie was divided, was sent out on these ravaging
+expeditions. Years after, some of Fraser's neighbours of French origin
+rallied him on his capacity for devastation as shown at this time. See
+Fraser's _Journal_, Appendix A, p. 253, and the _Memoires_ of Philippe
+Aubert de Gaspe, 1866, Ch. II.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE TWO HIGHLAND SEIGNEURS AT MALBAIE
+
+     Pitt's use of the Highlanders in the Seven Years' War.--The origin
+     of Fraser's Highlanders.--The career of Lord Lovat.--Lovat's son
+     Simon Fraser and other Frasers at Quebec.--Malcolm Fraser and John
+     Nairne, future seigneurs at Malbaie.--The Highlanders and Wolfe's
+     victory.--The Highlanders in the winter of 1759-60.--Malcolm Fraser
+     on Murray's defeat in April, 1760.--The return of Canadian
+     seigneurs to France.--General Murray buys Canadian
+     seigniories.--Nairne and Fraser at Malbaie.--Their grants from
+     Murray.
+
+
+The great British fleet which has passed up beyond Malbaie to Quebec is
+important for our tale. It carried men who have since become world
+famous; not only Wolfe but Jervis, afterward Lord St. Vincent, Cook, the
+great navigator, Guy Carleton, who saved Canada for Britain during the
+American Revolution, and many others of lesser though still considerable
+fame. But for Malbaie the most interesting men in that great array were
+those connected with the 78th, or Fraser's, Highlanders. On the decks of
+the British ships were hundreds of these brawny, bare-legged and kilted
+sons of the north, speaking their native Gaelic, and on occasion
+harangued by their officers in that tongue. A few years earlier many of
+them had served under Prince Charles Stuart to overthrow, if possible,
+King George II, and the house of Hanover; now they were fighting for
+that King against their old allies the French. Unreal in truth had been
+the rising in behalf of the Stuarts. Scotland had no grievances: she did
+not wish to dissolve the union with England, and if the tyranny of any
+royal house troubled her it was that of the Stuarts, alien from most
+Scots in both religious and political thought. But when, in 1745, some
+of the chieftains called out their clansmen, loyalty made these heed the
+summons, though half-heartedly. The same devotion was now given to the
+house of Hanover. Years earlier Duncan Forbes of Culloden, one of the
+noblest and wisest Scots of his age, had urged Walpole to call the
+Highlanders to fight Britain's battles. The hint was not then taken but
+later, Pitt, the greatest war minister Britain has ever had, revived
+Forbes's plan. Some Highland regiments were formed. The Highland dress
+that had been proscribed after Culloden as the brand of treason was now
+given its place in Britain's battle array: ever since it has played
+there its creditable part. Wolfe called his Highland companions in arms
+the most manly lot of officers he had ever seen.
+
+The Highland regiment that came with Wolfe to Quebec was known as
+Fraser's Highlanders because recruited chiefly from that ancient and
+powerful Scottish clan. In the rising of 1745 the Frasers had supported
+the Stuart cause and they suffered when that cause was lost. In 1747
+the head of the clan, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, an old man of 80,
+perished on the scaffold for his treason. The details of Lovat's career
+are amazing. In one aspect he was a wild, half barbarous Highland
+chieftain, in another one of the polished gentlemen and courtiers of his
+time. He was devoured by the ambition to be the most powerful man in
+Scotland. In that age others, more reputable than Fraser, found it wise
+to stand well with both royal houses, but he surpassed them all in
+tortuous treachery. In the rising of 1715 he was on the Whig side; in
+1745 he was forced at last to come out openly for the Stuarts. For
+neither side did he really care: he was merely serving his own ends.
+Considering his deeds it is a wonder that he so long escaped the
+scaffold. When he was a young man a certain Baroness Lovat stood in the
+way of his own claims to be the heir to the title of Lovat; so he
+offered to marry this lady's daughter and thus end the dispute. When his
+advances were refused he determined to use force and seized Lady Lovat's
+residence, Castle Dounie, only to find that the young lady had been
+spirited away. He resolved on the spot to marry her mother who was in
+the castle. She was a widow of thirty-four, he a man of thirty, so the
+disparity of age was not great. Stories of what happened vary, but it is
+said that in the dead of night a clergyman was brought to Lady Lovat's
+chamber and she was forced to go through the form of marriage, the
+bag-pipes playing in the next room to drown her cries. The lady was
+connected with the great house of Atholl who warred on Fraser with fire
+and sword. Outlawed, he escaped to the Continent to survive for half a
+century of intrigue and treason.
+
+Though profligate, cruel, treacherous and avaricious, so smooth was
+Lovat's address, so profound his knowledge of Scotland, and so strong
+his hold upon his own clansmen, that he always remained a man to be
+reckoned with. Since he served on the Hanoverian side in 1715 George I
+granted a pardon for his many offences; for his treason in 1745 George
+II let him go to the block. His last days in London were like those of a
+dying saint. He wrote to his son Simon Fraser, who led Fraser's
+Highlanders at Quebec in 1759, a beautiful spiritual letter. To the
+Major of the Tower he said he was going to Heaven where, he added, "very
+few Majors go." He was gay on his last morning:--"I hope to be in heaven
+by one o'clock or I should not be so merry now,"--and expressed his pity
+for those who "must continue to crawl a little longer in this evil
+world." He took what he called an eternal farewell from some of those
+about him: "we shall not meet again in the same place; I am sure of
+that." He practised kneeling at the block so that he might do it with
+dignity on the scaffold. A great crowd assembled to witness his
+execution and a platform fell killing several people. "The more
+mischief, the better sport," said Lord Lovat grimly, but he wondered
+that so many should come to see the taking off of his "old grey head."
+He carefully felt the edge of the executioner's axe to make sure that it
+was sharp.
+
+No doubt there was a touch of madness in Lord Lovat but the Fraser clan
+was devoted to him. By his treason all his honours and estates were
+forfeited. At the time his heir, Simon Fraser, only twenty-one years
+old, was a prisoner in the Castle of Edinburgh, attainted for high
+treason. But so good was his conduct that in 1750 he received a pardon.
+Then, a penniless man, he was called to the Scottish Bar. But another
+career was in store for him. Some years later when Pitt formed his
+design to use the Highlanders in the Seven Years' War he made Simon
+Fraser Colonel of a battalion, to be raised on the forfeited estates of
+his family and from the clan of which he was head. Success was
+instantaneous. Within a few weeks Fraser was at the head of some 1500
+men. They wore the Highland dress, with a sporran of badger's or otter's
+skin and carried musket and broadsword; some of them wore a dirk at
+their own cost. Among the officers were no less than five Simon
+Frasers,[3] three or four each of Alexander Frasers and John Frasers,
+and a good many other Frasers, among them a young Ensign, Malcolm
+Fraser, destined to rule one of the seigniories at Malbaie for more than
+half a century. Other Scottish names also appear, Macnabs, Chisholms,
+Macleans, and among them John Nairne who, like Malcolm Fraser, spent the
+best part of his life at Malbaie.
+
+The head of the Nairne clan, a John Nairne, third Baron Nairne, had
+fought for the Stuarts in 1745. He died an exile in France. Of how close
+kin to him was the young Highland Officer, John Nairne, who settled
+later at Malbaie, we do not know. His family was of course Jacobite. In
+"Waverley" Sir Walter Scott mentions a Miss Nairne with whom he says he
+was acquainted, and this lady appears to have been one of the sisters of
+Captain John Nairne. In 1745, as the Highland army rushed into
+Edinburgh, Miss Nairne was standing with some ladies on a balcony, when
+a shot, discharged by accident from a Highlander's musket, grazed her
+forehead. "Thank God," she said, "that the accident happened to me whose
+principles are known; had it befallen a Whig [the name then identified
+with the anti-Jacobite party] they would have said it was done on
+purpose."[4] At Murray Bay there is still a miniature portrait of Prince
+Charlie given it is said by himself to Miss Nairne.
+
+Before fighting under Wolfe John Nairne had followed the Dutch flag.
+Just before the rising of 1745, when a youth of only 17, he, like a
+great many others of his countrymen, is found serving in the well known
+"Scots Brigade"; many years later at Malbaie, he tells in his letters,
+of old companions in this service with well known Scottish names--Bruce,
+Maclean, Seton, Hepburn, Campbell, Dunbar, Dundass, Graham, and so on.
+In the pay of Holland Nairne remained for some nine years. He made, he
+says, "long voyages" possibly to the Dutch possessions in the far East.
+But he was glad of the chance to serve his own land which came when
+Britain, embarked upon the Seven Years' War, was anxious to recall her
+banished sons and to find soldiers, Scots or of any other nationality,
+who would fight her battles. So John Nairne left the Dutch service to
+join the 78th Highlanders and henceforth his loyalty to the house of
+Hanover was never questioned. From the first, since Scotland offered
+only a poor prospect of a career, Nairne may have thought of remaining
+in the new world when the war should end. The Highlander of that day,
+like the Irishman, found better chances abroad than at home. Unlike
+Nairne, Malcolm Fraser, a younger man, had not seen foreign service. The
+two met for the first time when, in 1757, they both joined the 78th
+Highlanders. Soon they became fast friends and for nearly half a century
+they were to live in the closest relations.
+
+Fraser's Highlanders had landed at Halifax in Nova Scotia in June, 1757.
+Their dress seemed unsuited to both the severe winters and the hot
+summers of North America and a change of costume was proposed; but
+officers and men protested vehemently and no change was made. During the
+campaigns in America the Highlanders boasted, not with entire truth as
+we shall see, that they with their bare legs enjoyed better health than
+those who wore breeches and warm clothing. At Louisbourg they did well.
+At Quebec a Highland officer's knowledge of French proved a great boon.
+When, in the darkness of the momentous morning of September 13th, 1759,
+Wolfe's boats were drifting down with the tide close to the north shore
+near Quebec, intending to land and scale the heights at what is now
+Wolfe's Cove, a French sentry called out sharply from the bank, "_Qui
+vive?_" A Highland officer, who had served in Holland, was able to reply
+"_France!_" without betraying his nationality.
+
+"_A quel regiment?_" demanded the sentry.
+
+"_De la reine_," answered the Highlander, giving the name of a
+well-known French regiment commanded by Bougainville; and then he added
+in a low voice, "_Ne faites pas de bruit; ce sont les vivres_"--for a
+convoy with provisions was expected by the French. The Highlanders were
+at the forefront in the stiff climb up the heights which proved to be
+Wolfe's master stroke. Malcolm Fraser has left his own account of that
+morning's work. The troops, he says, had been in the boats since nine
+o'clock on the previous night. At about twelve they had set out with a
+falling tide and they landed just as day was breaking. The light
+infantry struggled up the hill first, the French meanwhile firing on the
+boats, killing and wounding some of the occupants; but "the main body of
+our army soon got to the upper ground, after climbing a hill or rather a
+precipice, of about three hundred yards, very steep and covered with
+wood and brush." By ten the army was drawn up in order of battle,--"in a
+masterly manner," John Nairne said later,--on the Plains of Abraham, the
+bag-pipes of the Highlanders screaming a wild defiance to the foe. Then
+followed that brief death grapple, fatal to the leader on each side.
+Fraser and his Highlanders, we are told, rushed at the enemy with their
+broadswords in such irresistible fury that they were driven with a
+prodigious slaughter into the town. The Highlanders suffered as much
+after the battle as in it, for General Murray led them to reconnoitre in
+the direction of the General Hospital and a good many were shot by the
+French from bushes and from houses in the suburbs of St. Louis and St.
+John. To the French the Highlanders seemed especially ferocious,
+possibly owing to the wild music of their pipes, their waving tartans,
+their terrible broadswords, and perhaps, also, their partially naked
+bodies. They were indeed christened "the savages of Europe."
+
+Not many days after Wolfe's victory the Highlanders marched into Quebec
+with the victorious army. The French garrison was sent away to Europe,
+the British fleet itself soon followed, and the conquerors, with General
+Murray in command, settled down to face for the first time the rigours
+of a winter at Quebec. The Highlanders suffered terribly. One suspects
+that, in spite of their protests, the Highland costume was ill-suited to
+meet the severity of the climate; and, in any case, the army was
+ill-fed, ill-housed, and overworked. Malcolm Fraser kept a journal,[5]
+but Nairne, the other future seigneur at Malbaie, the most methodical of
+men, was less ready with the pen and appears to have made no chronicle
+of those slow but momentous days. The bitter weather was the dread
+enemy. Fraser tells how men on duty lost fingers and toes and some were
+even deprived of speech and sensation in a few minutes through "the
+incredible severity of the frost.... Our regiment in particular is in a
+pitiful situation having no breeches. Nothing but the last necessity
+obliged any man to go out of doors." Colonel Simon Fraser is, he adds,
+doing his best to provide trousers. Pitying nuns observed the need and
+soon busied themselves knitting long hose for the poor strangers. The
+scurvy carried off a good many. In April, 1760, of 894 men in Fraser's
+Highlanders not fewer than 580 were on the sick list and it was a wan
+and woe-begone host that set itself grimly to the task of meeting the
+assault on Quebec for which the French under Levis had been preparing
+throughout the winter.
+
+When it came on April 28th, 1760, the Highlanders were not wanting.
+Instead of fighting behind Quebec's crazy walls Murray marched his men
+out to the Plains of Abraham to meet the enemy in the open. On ground
+half covered by snow, with here and there deep pools of water from the
+heavy rain of the previous day, the two armies grappled in what was
+sometimes a hand to hand conflict. Of the British one-third had come
+from the hospital to take their places in the ranks. The proportion of
+the Highlanders who did this was even greater; half of them rose on that
+day from sick beds. It proved a dark day for Britain. Murray was
+defeated, losing about one-third of his army on the field. Four of the
+Highland officers were killed, twenty-three were wounded, among them
+Colonel Simon Fraser himself. Malcolm Fraser was dangerously wounded;
+but he tells us gleefully that within twenty days he was entirely cured.
+Nairne seems to have gone through the fight without a hurt. It was
+surely by a strange turn of fortune that men, some of whom fought
+against George II in '45 and had been condemned as traitors, should
+fifteen years later shed their blood like water for the same sovereign.
+Malcolm Fraser was disposed to be critical of Murray's tactics. He ought
+to have stood like a wall on the rising ground near Quebec, says Fraser;
+but "his passion for glory getting the better of his reason he ordered
+the army to march out and attack the enemy ... in a situation the most
+desired by them and [that] ought to be avoided by us as the Canadians
+and Savages could be used against us to the greatest advantage in their
+beloved ... element, woods." Nearly half a century later when Malcolm
+Fraser was giving advice to a young officer, Nairne's son, he advised
+him not to be too critical of the actions of his superiors. The
+confident young diarist of 1760 had meanwhile learned reserve. But he
+was not alone among the Highlanders in his criticism of Murray. A Murray
+led at Culloden in April, 1746, as at Quebec in April, 1760. Lieutenant
+Charles Stewart was wounded in both battles; as he lay in Quebec
+surrounded by brother officers he said, "From April battles and Murray
+generals, Good Lord deliver me." It is to General Murray's credit that,
+when the remark was repeated to him, he called on his subordinate to
+express the hope for better luck next time.
+
+A little later Quebec was saved by the arrival of a British fleet and
+the French fell back on Montreal. Murray followed them but the
+Highlanders remained in garrison at Quebec, apparently because, with
+half the officers and men invalided, they could make but a poor muster
+for active campaigning. It thus happened that Nairne and Fraser did not
+share the glory of being present at the fall of Montreal. There, on a
+September day in 1760, the Governor of Canada, the Marquis de Vaudreuil,
+handed over to General Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief in America of the
+armies of Great Britain, the vast territory which he had ruled. It was
+not certain, albeit the great Pitt was resolved what to do, that, when
+the war ended, the country would not be handed back to France. The
+French officers professed, indeed, to believe that a peace was imminent
+by which France should save what she held in America. Meanwhile,
+however, they and their regiments were to be sent to France. The few
+residents at Malbaie whom Captain Gorham had spared, looking out across
+the river in October, 1760, saw it dotted with the white sails of many
+ships outward bound. Though they floated the British flag, their decks
+were crowded with the soldiers of France now carried home by the
+triumphant conqueror.
+
+But more than the soldiers went back to France. Rather than live under
+the sway of the British, many civilians also left Canada, among them
+some of the seigneurs of Canadian manors. Land was cheap in Canada and
+it is not to be wondered at that young British officers, seeking their
+fortune, should have thought of settling in the country. A hundred
+years earlier French officers of the Carignan Regiment had abandoned
+their military careers to become Canadian seigneurs. In the end John
+Nairne and Malcolm Fraser took up this project most warmly and in their
+plan to get land they had the support of their commanding officer,
+General Murray. Murrays, Nairnes and Frasers had all fought on the
+Jacobite side in 1745; and we know how the Scots hold together.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL JAMES MURRAY]
+
+James Murray, son of a Scottish peer, Lord Elibank, was himself still a
+young man of only a little more than thirty,--a high-spirited, brave,
+generous and impulsive officer. His family played some considerable part
+in the life of the time and they were always suspected of Jacobite
+leanings. Murray's brother, Lord Elibank, was a leader among the
+Scottish wits of his day. Dr. Johnson's famous quip against the Scots
+when he defined oatmeal as a food in England for horses and in Scotland
+for men was met by Elibank's neat retort: "And where will you find such
+horses and such men?" Another brother, Alexander, was a forerunner of
+John Wilkes the radical; the cry of "Murray and Liberty" was heard in
+London long before that of "Wilkes and Liberty." A third brother, George
+became an admiral. General James Murray sometimes described himself as a
+soldier of fortune. He was certainly not rich. Yet now when many of the
+Canadian seigneurs sold their manors, in some way Murray was able to
+purchase half a dozen of these vast estates. He bought that of Lauzon
+opposite Quebec on which now stands the town of Levis and half a dozen
+villages. He bought St. Jean and Sans-Bruit (now Belmont), near Quebec,
+Riviere du Loup and Madawaska, on the lower St. Lawrence, and Foucault
+on Lake Champlain.
+
+To Nairne and Fraser, brave young Scots, who had done good service,
+Murray was specially attracted. Nairne, though only a lieutenant, till
+1761, when he purchased a captaincy, was his junior by but a few years;
+Lieutenant Malcolm Fraser was three years younger than Nairne. The young
+men were seeking their fortunes but since they had very little money to
+buy estates, as Murray did, they could not expect to get land in the
+more settled parts of the country. For them Malbaie was a promising
+field and in September, 1761, they went down to have a look at it. The
+property was vested in the government, for which Murray could act. It
+was not wholly untrodden wilderness, for some land was cleared and a
+good deal of live stock still remained. The houses too had not been
+entirely destroyed by Gorham's men. The war had not yet ended. It was
+still uncertain whether Britain would hold Canada. But, for the moment,
+there was little to do. It was possible that in Canada further
+opportunities of military service would not be wanting. As seigneurs in
+Canada the young officers would retain rank as gentlemen and would not
+sink to the social level of mere cultivators of the soil. The experience
+too of founding settlements in the Canadian wilderness had
+compensations. Good sport was always to be had. They could pay at least
+annual visits to Quebec for a few weeks, and were, perhaps, hardly more
+remote from the cultivated world than some of the chieftains in their
+own Scottish Highlands.
+
+The survey of Malbaie must have proved satisfactory. It is true, as the
+young officers said, that there was an over-abundance of "mountains and
+morasses," with good land scattered only here and there. But in their
+formal proposals to Murray they made this fact the plea for the grant of
+a larger area. Nairne apparently had greater resources than Fraser and,
+being now a captain, was his senior in rank. He asked for the more
+important tract lying west of the little river at Malbaie and stretching
+to the seigniory of Les Eboulements, Fraser for that lying east of the
+river and stretching some eighteen miles along the St. Lawrence to the
+Riviere Noire. The grants were to extend for three leagues into the
+interior. They were to be held under seigniorial tenure but Nairne asked
+for 3000 acres of freehold and Fraser for 2000. They thus close their
+petition to Murray: "This [request], if his Excellency is pleased to
+grant, will make the proposers extremely happy, and they shall forever
+retain the most grateful remembrance of his bounty; and [they] hope his
+Excellency will be pleased in the grant to allow them to give the lands
+to be granted such a name as may perpetuate their sense of his great
+kindness to them." They got what they asked for. It may indeed be
+doubted whether Murray had any right to allot huge areas of land in a
+country which had not yet been ceded finally to Great Britain, but any
+defects of title in this respect were corrected long after by new grants
+under the great seal. As it was, Murray wrote on a sheet of ordinary
+foolscap, still preserved at Murray Bay, a brief deed of the land[6]
+and, behold, the two young officers have become landed proprietors! To
+their request for permission to use Murray's name, in grateful
+remembrance of his kindness, he also assented. Nairne's seigniory was to
+be called Murray's Bay and Fraser's Mount Murray. The grants were made
+because "it is a national advantage and tends to promote the cultivation
+of lands within the province to encourage His Majesty's natural-born
+subjects settling within the same"; and the consideration was "the
+faithful services" rendered by the two officers.
+
+A good deal of stock and farm implements remained at Malbaie and this
+the new proprietors arranged to buy, giving in payment their promissory
+notes, Nairne's for L85, 6s. 8d., currency and Fraser, who got only
+one-third, his for L42, 13s. 4d. They seem to have had a good deal for
+their money. There were a score and a half or so of cattle, four or five
+horses, (one of them twenty-two years old), twenty sheep, fourteen pigs,
+besides chickens and other living creatures. In addition there were
+waggons and other farm appliances, most of them probably old and of
+little use, though they must have helped to tide over the first
+difficult days when everything would have to be provided.
+
+On getting his grant Nairne retired from the army on half pay, but
+Fraser remained on active service for many years still. Thus Nairne was
+the more continuously resident at Murray Bay and in its development he
+played the greater part. Fraser's interests were divided, not only
+between Murray Bay and the army, but also between Murray Bay and another
+seigniory which he secured on the south side of the river at Riviere du
+Loup and known as Fraserville. For us therefore the interest at Murray
+Bay now centres chiefly in Nairne and his family.
+
+[Footnote 3: The name Simon Fraser appears with credit more than once in
+Canadian history. It was a Simon Fraser who crossed the Rocky Mountains
+and first followed for its whole course the Fraser River named after
+him.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Waverley, Chapter II.]
+
+[Footnote 5: See Appendix A., p. 249. "Journal of Malcolm Fraser, First
+Seigneur of Mount Murray, Malbaie."]
+
+[Footnote 6: See copy of the grant in Appendix B., p. 271.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOHN NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY
+
+     Colonel Nairne's portrait.--His letters.--The first Scottish
+     settlers at Malbaie.--Nairne's finance.--His tasks.--The cure's
+     work.--The Scottish settlers and their French wives.--The Church
+     and Education.--Nairne's efforts to make Malbaie Protestant.--His
+     war on idleness.--The character of the habitant.--Fishing at
+     Malbaie.--Trade at Malbaie.--Farming at Malbaie.--Nairne's
+     marriage.--Career and death in India of Robert Nairne.--The Quebec
+     Act and its consequences for the habitant.
+
+
+In the dining room of the Manor House at Murray Bay Nairne's portrait
+still hangs. It was painted, probably in Scotland, when he was an old
+man, by an artist, to me unknown. The face is refined, showing
+kindliness and gentleness in the lines of the mouth, and revealing the
+"friendly honest man" that he aspired to be. His nose is big and in
+spite of the prevailing gentleness of demeanour the thin lips, pressed
+together, indicate some vigour of character. He has the watery eye of
+old age and this takes away somewhat from the impression of energy. It
+is not a clever face but honest, rather sad, and unmistakeably Scottish
+in type. Nairne wears the red coat of the British officer and a wig in
+the fashion of the time. The portrait might be one of a frequenter of
+court functions in London rather than that of a hardy pioneer at Murray
+Bay, who had carried on a stern battle with the wilderness.
+
+Nairne was a good letter writer. To his kin in Scotland he sent from the
+beginning voluminous annual epistles. They are not such as we now write,
+hurriedly scratched off in a few minutes. With abundant time at his
+disposal Nairne could write what must have occupied many days. When
+written, the letters were sometimes copied in a book almost as large as
+an office ledger. It is well that this was done, for in this book is
+preserved almost the sole record of the life at Murray Bay of a century
+and a half ago. The pages are still fresh and the handwriting, while not
+that of one much accustomed to use the pen, is clear and vigorous. The
+zeal for copying letters was intermittent. There are gaps, covering many
+years. Then, for a time, not only the letters sent, but those received,
+are copied into the book. In the long winter evenings there was not much
+to do. Malcolm Fraser, it is true, lived just across the river at the
+neighbouring manor house. But Malcolm was more usually away than not.
+Besides, as one grows older, there is no place like one's own fireside
+of a winter evening. So our good seigneur read and dozed and wrote and
+we are grateful that he has told us so much about past days.
+
+Nairne's first visit to Malbaie was, as we have seen, in the autumn of
+1761, when he took possession of his seigniory. Not until the following
+year was the formal grant made by Murray. Long afterwards, in 1798,
+writing to a friend, Hepburn, in Scotland, Nairne recalled his arrival
+at his future home. "I came here first in 1761 with five soldiers [alas,
+we do not know their names!] and procured some Canadian servants. One
+small house contained us all for several years and [we] were separated
+from every other people for about eighteen miles without any road." He
+contrasts this with what he sees about him at the time of writing--a
+parish with more than five hundred inhabitants, with one hundred men
+capable of bearing arms, grist mills, fisheries, good houses and barns,
+fertile fields, a priest, a chapel, and so on. The five soldiers of whom
+Nairne speaks were no doubt men of the 78th Highlanders and ancestors of
+a goodly portion of the population of Malbaie at the present time.
+Perhaps some of them had fought at Culloden; certainly all fought at
+Louisbourg and Quebec.
+
+In the first days at Murray Bay Nairne was in debt. In 1761, probably to
+purchase his captaincy, he had incurred a considerable obligation to his
+friend General Murray; where Murray got L400 to lend him is a mystery,
+for he was himself always pressed for funds. With everything to do at
+Murray Bay, mills to be built, roads to be opened, a manor house to be
+constructed, it was not easy to get together any money; for years the
+debt hung like a mill-stone round Nairne's neck. But he had always a
+certain, if small, revenue in his half pay and, in time, he acquired,
+chiefly by inheritance, what was, for that period in Canada, a
+considerable fortune. In 1766, when Nairne was in Scotland, General
+Murray, who had himself just arrived from Canada, wrote urgently to ask
+for payment. Murray owed to a Mr. Ross L8,000 and could not borrow one
+shilling in England on his estates in Canada; so he said "delay will be
+a very terrible disappointment to me." But this disappointment he had to
+bear. In 1770 the debt was still unpaid and may have remained so for
+some years longer. Happily the friendship between the former comrades
+was not impaired by their financial relations. Murray promised to put
+Nairne in the way of being "very comfortable and easy" in Canada, if he
+would follow his advice, but nothing came of his offer. For some years
+after 1761 Nairne thought of returning to Scotland, whither ties of kin
+drew him strongly. But his father's death in 1766 or 1767 helped to
+weaken these ties. In any case Scotland offered no career and he must do
+something to pay the debt to Murray and to provide for himself.
+
+Nairne's chief task as seigneur was to put settlers on his huge tract.
+The seigneur, indeed, discharged functions similar to those of a modern
+colonization company, but with differences that in some respects favour
+the older system. Now-a-days the occupier buys the land and the
+colonization company gets the best possible price for what it has to
+sell; it can hold for a rise in value and, if it likes, can refuse to
+sell at all. Nairne had no such powers. Under the law, if a reputable
+person applied for land, he must let him have it. Settlers required no
+capital to buy their land, and, as long as they paid their merely
+nominal rent, they could not be disturbed in their holdings. The rent
+amounted to about one cent an acre, and some twenty cents or a live
+capon for each of the two or three arpents of frontage which a farm
+would have. The rent charge was uniform and depended not upon the
+quality of the land or upon the individual seigneur but upon what was
+usual in the district; moreover, under the French law, no matter how
+valuable the land became, the rent could not be increased and, though so
+trifling, it was rarely required until the settler's farm had begun to
+be productive. Sometimes in a single year Nairne would put as many as
+twenty brawny young fellows on his land to hew out homes for themselves.
+Each of them got a tract of about one hundred acres and, as the annual
+rental received for a dozen farms would be hardly more than twenty
+dollars, the seigneur reaped no great profit from his tenants. It was
+only when a tenant sold a holding, that the seigneur secured any
+considerable sum. To him then went one-twelfth of the price. The other
+chief source of profit, as settlement increased, was from the
+seigneur's mill. To it all the occupiers of his land must bring their
+grain and pay a fixed charge for its grinding. In scattered settlements
+the mill brought little profit and was a source of expense rather than
+of income. But, as population increased, this "_droit de banalite_"
+became valuable. The mill at Malbaie was, in time, very prosperous.
+
+In Canada the seigneur was not the oppressor of his people but rather
+their watchful guardian. He planned roads and other improvements,
+checked abuses, and enforced justice. At his side stood, usually, the
+priest. The moment a parish was established a cure was entitled to the
+tithe; near every manor house, the village church was sure to spring up.
+Even when, as at Malbaie, the priest and the seigneur were not of the
+same faith they were often fast friends. Nairne's relations were good
+with the neighbouring cure, when, at length, Malbaie had a resident
+priest. Each village would thus usually have at least two men of some
+culture working together for its spiritual and temporal interests. Both
+remained in touch with the outside world; the priest with his bishop at
+Quebec, the seigneur with the representative there of the sovereign.
+Upon each change of governor Nairne was required to appear at Quebec to
+render fealty and homage. With head uncovered and wearing neither sword
+nor spur he must kneel before the governor, and take oath on the
+Gospels to be faithful to the king, to be party to nothing against his
+interests, to perform all the duties required by the terms of his
+holding, and, especially, to appear in arms to defend the province if
+attacked. We find Nairne excused by General Haldimand in 1781 from
+discharging this ceremony, but only because he was away on active
+service.
+
+When Nairne settled at Murray Bay he was unmarried and so, no doubt,
+were the soldiers he brought with him. Only after five or six years did
+he himself find a wife but we may be sure that his men did not wait so
+long. What more natural than that they should marry the French Canadian
+servants of whom Nairne speaks? A visitor at Murray Bay is struck with
+names like McNicol, Harvey, Blackburn, McLean, and one or two others
+that have a decidedly North British ring. Some, if not all, are names of
+one or other of the half dozen soldiers who settled at Murray Bay in
+Nairne's time. There was no disbanding there of a regiment, as tradition
+has it. In time the 78th Highlanders were disbanded, but certainly not
+at Murray Bay, and, though hundreds of them remained in Canada, only a
+few individual soldiers came to Nairne's settlement. Already when he
+arrived French Canadians were there and from the first the community was
+prevailingly French and Catholic. In 1784 when joined with Les
+Eboulements and Isle aux Coudres under a single priest Malbaie already
+had 65 communicants. As likely as not some even of the Highlanders were
+Catholics. In any case their children became such and spoke French, the
+tongue of their mothers; even Nairne's own children spoke only French
+until they went to Quebec to school.
+
+When, from time to time, a missionary priest visited the place he
+baptized children of Catholic and Protestant alike, including even the
+children of the Protestant family in the manor house. The only religious
+services that the people ever shared in were those of the Roman Catholic
+Church. Nairne would have wished it otherwise. He held sturdy Protestant
+views, and wished to bring in Protestant settlers. On one or more of his
+visits to Scotland he made efforts to induce Scots to move to Canada.
+But he met with no great success. A Scottish friend, Gilchrist, who had
+visited Nairne at Murray Bay, writes, in 1775, to express hope that he
+will not encourage French settlers who will rob him, who have
+"disingenuous, lying, cheating, detestable dispositions," and are the
+"banes of society." He adds, "I am glad you give me reason to believe
+you are to carry over some industrious honest people from hence with
+you. I am convinced 'twere easy by introducing a few such [to bring
+about that] the dupes to the most foolish and absurd religion now in the
+world might be warmed out and your quiet as well as interest established
+from Point au Pique to the Lake."[7] The Roman Catholic faith had more
+vitality than Nairne's correspondent supposed. It was Protestantism that
+should in time be "warmed out" of Murray Bay.
+
+To prevent this Nairne did what he could; for a long time he entertained
+hopes not only that the Protestants at Murray Bay might be held to their
+faith but also that the Roman Catholics would be led into the Protestant
+fold. His chief complaint against the Roman Catholic Church was in
+regard to education. There was woeful ignorance. Nairne was in command
+of the local militia and he found that officers of militia, and even a
+neighbouring seigneur, could not read. When Roman Catholic services were
+held at Murray Bay, as they were regularly before he died, the tongue
+was one that the people did not understand. At the services there was
+nothing "but a few lighted candles, in defyance of the sun, and the
+priest singing and reading Latin or Greek.... None of us understands a
+word." He complains of "the greatest deficiency in preaching sentiments
+of morality and virtue." Indeed, very few of the priests could preach or
+say anything in public beyond the Latin mass. Nairne tried to secure
+better means of educating his people. Probably earlier also, but
+certainly in 1791, he was writing to the Anglican Bishop of Quebec to
+help him to do something. He lives, he says, in "the most Northerly and,
+I believe, the poorest parish on the Continent of America." The people
+cannot read and have no literary amusement. Their idle days they spend
+in drunkenness and debauchery and he wishes something done for them. Ten
+years later Nairne is returning to the charge. There are five Protestant
+families in the neighbourhood. They cannot even be baptized except by
+the cure. They cannot get any Protestant instruction; so the Protestant
+children are reared Roman Catholics. Nairne wished to have a Protestant
+clergyman established at Murray Bay; he could make that place his
+headquarters and carry on missionary work in the neighbouring parishes.
+But the five Protestant families at Murray Bay soon became three, for
+Nairne says, in 1801, that his and Colonel Fraser's families and one
+other man, an Englishman, are the only remaining Protestants. He and
+Fraser, he adds, are growing old and, in any case, it was doubtful
+whether the Englishman would attend service.
+
+Yet Nairne still begged for a Protestant missionary. He desired most of
+all a free school. The teacher should be, he says, French but able also
+to preach in English; there was now no school at Murray Bay; a free
+school and a church system which would release the people from paying
+tithes could work wonders and, probably, most of the people would soon
+become Protestants. Knowing the tenacity with which the French
+Canadians have clung to their faith, it seems hardly likely that
+Nairne's dreams would have been realized. At any rate nothing was done.
+At that time there were hardly more than a dozen Anglican clergymen in
+all Canada and the Bishop of Quebec had no one to spare to look after
+the few scattered sheep at Murray Bay. On the other hand the rival
+Church did not forget her own. Long before the British conquest
+occasional services had been held at Malbaie and these were continued,
+with some regularity, until a resident priest came in 1797. The visiting
+priests worked hard. They were, Nairne says, "industrious in private to
+confess the people, especially the women, which branch of their duty is
+deemed most sacred and necessary." Against this tremendous power of the
+confessional, Protestantism had nothing that could be called an opposing
+influence. When a Protestant died he might not, of course, be buried in
+the Roman Catholic burial ground. For these outcast dead Nairne set
+aside a plot near his own house, where, still, under a little clump of
+trees, their bones lie, neglected and forgotten. Not more than half a
+dozen Protestants were ever buried there and this shows that even the
+Protestant pioneers were few in number; hardly one of their children
+remained outside the Roman Church.
+
+Nairne thought the Canadians not too prone to industry and he deplored
+the multitude of religious holidays that gave an excuse for idleness.
+In a year there were not less than forty, in addition to Sundays, and on
+some of the holidays, such as that of the patron saint of the parish,
+there were scenes of great disorder. Nairne wrote on the subject to the
+Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec asking him to take steps to ensure that
+the people might come to think it not sinful but virtuous to work for
+six days in the week. The Bishop promised consideration of the matter.
+Already it had been under debate and in the end the Bishop gave orders
+that labour might continue on most of the Church's festivals; that of
+the patron saint of the parish was in time abolished. Nairne thus helped
+to bring about a considerable industrial reform. But beyond this he
+achieved little.
+
+The French Canadians, who occupied his vacant acres, have shown both a
+marvellous tenacity for their own customs and also a fecundity that has
+enabled people, numbering 60,000 at the time of the British conquest, to
+multiply now to some 2,500,000, scattered over the United States and
+Canada. To govern them has never been an easy problem. Nairne says that
+the French officer, Bougainville, who had known the Canadians in many
+campaigns, called them at Murray's table a brave and submissive people;
+he thought they needed the strong hand of authority and added that he
+was sure the British method of government would soon spoil them. Under
+the French regime they had had no gleam of political liberty. For twenty
+years before the conquest France had exacted from them the fullest
+possible measure of military service. The British ended this and brought
+liberty. Its growth is sometimes so rapid as to be noxious, and, no
+doubt, some of those who came to Nairne's domain gave him much trouble.
+"No people," Nairne said of them, "stand more in awe of punishment when
+convinced that there is power to inflict it, as none are so easily
+spoiled as to be mutinous by indulgences." Some of them showed striking
+intelligence: in 1784 we find Nairne recommending for appointment as
+Notary one Malteste (no doubt the well-known name Maltais is a later
+form) as a "remarkable honest, well-behaved countryman with more
+education than is commonly to be found with one in his station." The
+dwellers at Malbaie were for the most part a quiet people entirely
+untouched by the movements of the outside world. "Nothing here," wrote
+Nairne in 1798, "is considered of importance but producing food to
+satisfy craving Stomachs, which the people of this cold and healthy
+country remarkably possess, and to feed numbers of children.... They
+have no other ambition or consideration whatever but simply to procure
+food and raiment for themselves and their numerous families."
+
+They had a very clear idea of their rights. Nairne's grant conferred
+upon him those of fishing and hunting. But the inhabitants declared that
+when land was once granted, the seigneur lost all control over the
+adjoining waters. Nairne wished, for instance, to prohibit the spearing
+of salmon at night by the Canadians, with the aid of torches or
+lanterns. But they had never been hampered by such restrictions and,
+when Nairne tried to check them, they said that they would not be
+hindered. It was in vain that he said "I had rather have no power at all
+and no seigneurie at all [than] not to be able to keep up the rights of
+it." When, in 1797, he ordered one Joseph Villeneuve to cease the
+"flambeau" fishing at night, the fellow "roared and bellowed" and set
+him at defiance; no less than twenty companions joined him in the
+fishing. They would acknowledge no law nor restraint and seem to have
+had _force majeure_ on their side. It was not until long after that the
+legislature at Quebec passed strict laws regulating the modes of
+fishing.
+
+Whatever the limitations on the seigneur's authority he had the
+undoubted right of control over fishing in rivers and lakes until the
+adjacent lands were conceded to occupiers. It was important, therefore,
+not to grant lands which carried with them the best fishing and Nairne's
+ardent friend Gilchrist kept exhorting him from Scotland on this point.
+"There is no place ... I would so willingly and happily pass life in,"
+he wrote, in 1775, "as in your Neighbourhood and often have I been
+seized with the memory of your easy and uncontrolled way of rising,
+lying, dancing, drinking, &c., at your habitation.... One hope ... I
+wish to be well founded and that is that your Stewart, Factor or
+Attorney, has not conceded any lands with the River in front from the
+Rapides du Vieux Moulin. If otherwise, you have lost more than the
+profits [which] all above Brassar's will yield in our lifetime. The
+fishing in that part of the River is alone worth crossing the Atlantic."
+
+Over trade Nairne and Fraser tried to exercise some real control. Their
+grants gave them no right to trade with the Indians and in reality no
+authority over trade. But they were guardians of the law and took steps
+to check traders from violating it. One Brassard, who lived up the
+Murray River, seems to have been a frequent offender. It was easy to
+debauch the Indians with drink and then to get their furs for very
+little and the seigneurs needed always to be alert. In 1778 we find
+Malcolm Fraser making with one Hugh Blackburn a bargain which outlines
+what the seigneurs tried to do in regard to trade. Blackburn binds
+himself in the sum of L200 to obey certain restrictions: he will not
+attempt to debauch the Indians belonging to the King's Posts; in no
+circumstances will he sell them liquor; nor will he sell liquor on
+credit to anyone. He will obey the lawful orders of Nairne and Fraser
+relative to the carrying on of his trade; he will pay his debts, and
+will make others pay what they owe him, refusing them credit if accounts
+are not paid within six months. In consideration of these pledges by
+Blackburn Fraser guarantees his credit with the Quebec merchants. The
+difficulty in regard to trade with the Indians settled itself by the
+tragic remedy of their gradual extinction. In 1800 Nairne says that the
+Micmacs, once a great nuisance, are now rarely seen.
+
+Nairne was a good farmer and his letters contain many references to
+farming operations. At Murray Bay, he says, plowing goes on for seven
+months in the year, from the middle of April to the middle of November.
+But the Canadians do not plough well; they do not understand how to
+preserve the crops when cut; and, on the whole, are backward in
+agriculture. He himself preserved for a domain more land than he could
+ever get cleared, for this clearing was heavy work. Some of the soil at
+Murray Bay is very good. Gilchrist writes indeed to say that he has been
+talking in Scotland about Nairne's land. "On my mentioning that you had
+lime, without digging for it, it was acknowledged that you possessed all
+the advantages possible and that anything might be done with ground such
+as yours which is dry; and I verily believe would you thoroughly lime
+your land you may keep it in crops as long as you please and have
+prodigious returns." Good farming, he says, Nairne may have and he
+should preserve good fishing; then Murray Bay will be perfect. "If I
+have the pleasure of seeing your sisters, I'll represent Mal Bay as the
+counterpart of Paradise before the fall." He adds some local
+characterizations. "Catish will do for Eve, La Grange for Adam, and
+Dufour for the Devil."
+
+Nairne was married in 1766 to Christiana Emery. Of her history I know
+nothing, except that she was born in Edinburgh and married in Canada.
+Soon after marriage Nairne paid a long visit to Scotland and there in
+1767 the freedom of the borough of Sterling was conferred upon him. Mrs.
+Nairne must have been considerably younger than her husband, for though
+he lived to ripe old age, she survived him by twenty-six years, dying at
+Murray Bay in 1828. Whether she brought any dowry I do not know; Nairne
+certainly had had in mind the improvement of his position by marrying.
+Nine children were born to them but three died in childhood of an
+epidemic fever that broke out at Murray Bay in 1773 while Nairne was in
+Scotland. A fourth child, Anne, died of consumption. Five children lived
+to grow up--three daughters and two sons.
+
+Canada seemed so remote that it was not easy for Nairne to keep in touch
+with his kin. The scattering of families, one of the penalties Imperial
+Britain, with a world wide domain, imposes upon her sons, had taken
+Nairne's brother Robert to India. At a time only ten years later than
+Clive's great victory of Plassey, Britain's grasp on the country was, as
+yet, by no means certain and India was amazingly remote; five years
+usually elapsed between the sending of a letter to India from Canada and
+the receipt of a reply! On January 5th, 1770, Robert Nairne writes from
+Marlborough, India, acknowledging a letter from his brother John, only
+recently received, dated April 21, 1767. The brothers discuss family
+news and family plans, their old father's health, the desirability of
+settling down at home in Scotland, the life each is living, remote from
+that home. Though an officer, Robert engaged in trade and made some
+money. "The Company's pay is hardly subsistence," he says, "and here we
+have not, as on t'other side of India the spoils of plundered provinces
+to grow fat on. I keep my health very well and if I want the
+satisfaction, I am also free from many Anxietys, people are subject to
+who are more in the glare of life." He was in a retired place, where
+there were few people and perennial summer, with "no variety of seasons
+nor of anything else." Time passes insensibly, he says; "in India years
+are like months in Europe ... I write, read, walk and go in company the
+same round nearly throughout the year. Here we have little company; yet
+everyone wants to go to out settlements where they are quite alone. I
+cannot account for it. Mal Bay is your out settlement. Do you like that
+as well as Quebec?"
+
+Robert Nairne was something of a philosopher. "Have you ever so much
+philosophy," he writes to the seigneur of Murray Bay in 1767, "as to
+think everything that happens is for the best? I am so far of that mind
+that content and discontent I think arises [_sic_] rather from the cast
+of our own thoughts than from outward accidents and that there is nearly
+an equal distribution of the means of happiness to all men, and that
+they are the happiest that improve their means the most." He felt the
+weariness of exile, the Scot's longing for his own land. "Certainly to a
+person of a right tone of mind if there are enjoyments in life, it must
+be in our own country amongst our friends and relations. With such
+conditions the bare necessaries of life are better than riches without
+them.... Death is but a limited absence and you and I are much in that
+state with regard to our friends at home."
+
+It was not long before Robert Nairne's letters ceased altogether. In
+1776, John Nairne received at Murray Bay the sad news that, in November
+or December, 1774, his brother had been killed in a petty expedition
+against some local tribesmen. A native chieftain had murdered, cooked
+and eaten a rival who was friendly to the East India Company and Robert
+Nairne with some natives, and only three Europeans, went up country,
+through woods and bogs, to seize the offender. When there was fighting
+his natives fled, and he was shot through the body. It was a pity, says
+John Nairne's correspondent, Hepburn, to lose his life "in so silly a
+manner." He would soon have been governor of Bencoolen and was in a way
+to make "a great figure in life." Of his fortune of L6,000 John Nairne
+received a part. Twenty-five years after his brother's death Nairne was
+to get at Murray Bay similar news of the loss of his own son in distant
+India. It has levied a heavy tribute of Britain's best blood.
+
+In 1774 Nairne again revisited Scotland. Though no politician, he must
+have heard much about the Quebec Act, then before the Imperial
+Parliament. The Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, after careful
+consideration of the whole question, had reached the conclusion, not
+belied by subsequent history, as far as the Province of Quebec is
+concerned, that Canada would always be French and that, with some slight
+modifications, the French system found there by Britain should be given
+final and legal status under British supremacy. So the Quebec Act was
+passed in 1774. While the British criminal law was introduced, the
+French civil law, including the land system under which Nairne held
+Murray Bay, was left unchanged. The Bill gave the Church the same
+privileged position that it had enjoyed under Catholic sovereigns. The
+tithe could be collected by legal process; taxation for church purposes
+voted by the parochial authority called the _fabrique_ was as compulsory
+as civil taxes, unless the person taxed declared that he was not a Roman
+Catholic; and the whole ecclesiastical system of New France was
+supported and encouraged. The Bill caused much irritation in Protestant
+New England, which saw some malicious design in the establishment of
+Roman Catholicism on its borders. The Continental Congress of 1775
+denounced the Quebec Act, and even the Declaration of Independence has
+something to say about it.
+
+It is obvious that Nairne disliked the Bill. His irrepressible friend,
+Gilchrist, wrote giving a picture of its probable dire social results,
+upsetting all domestic relations between the two races. The Bill, says
+Gilchrist, "is the most pernicious [that] could have been devised. Judge
+of the Fetes now that the fools have got the sanction of the British
+Parliament to their beggaring principles. It is not clear that your
+Protestant servants will [even] be allowed to work upon their [the Roman
+Catholic] idle days. What would you and I think on being told by these
+black rascals [the priests are meant of course] that our people, I mean
+Protestants, durst not obey our orders without a dispensation from
+them?"
+
+The social consequences of the Quebec Act did not prove as revolutionary
+as Nairne's animated correspondent feared. Less than is usually supposed
+did the habitant like it since it placed him again under the priest's
+and the seigneur's authority, suspended since the British conquest. To
+the English colonies it added one to other causes of friction that boded
+trouble to the British Empire. In the previous year the people of Boston
+had defied Britain, by throwing into their harbour cargoes of tea upon
+which the owners proposed to pay a hated duty, levied by outside
+authority. The Quebec Act brought a final rupture a step nearer and at
+last there was open war. "The colonists have brought things to a crisis
+now, indeed;" wrote Gilchrist; "the consequences must be dreadful to
+them soon and I am afraid in the end to our country." To Great Britain
+indeed disastrous they were to be and soon the seigneur of Murray Bay
+was busy with his share in preparing for the conflict.
+
+[Footnote 7: The Lake is no doubt Lake Nairne, the present Grand Lac.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JOHN NAIRNE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
+
+     Nairne's work among the French Canadians.--He becomes Major of the
+     Royal Highland Emigrants.--Arnold's march through the wilderness to
+     Quebec.--Quebec during the Siege, 1775-76.--The habitants and the
+     Americans.--Montgomery's plans.--The assault on December 31st,
+     1775.--Malcolm Fraser gives the alarm in Quebec.--Montgomery's
+     death.--Arnold's attack.--Nairne's heroism.--Arnold's failure.--The
+     American fire-ship.--The arrival of a British fleet.--The retreat
+     of the Americans.--Nairne's later service in the War.--Isle aux
+     Noix and Carleton Island.--Sir John Johnson and the desolation of
+     New York.--Nairne and the American prisoners at Murray Bay.--Their
+     escape and capture.--Nairne and the Loyalists.--The end of the
+     War.--Nairne's retirement to Murray Bay.
+
+
+When war with the revolted colonies grew imminent, it was obvious that a
+man of Nairne's experience in military matters would soon be needed. One
+aim of the government was to keep the French Canadians quiet by
+disarming their prejudices and impressing upon them their duty to George
+III. From Quebec, on July 13th, 1775, Nairne was given instructions to
+undertake this work for his district. Self-control and cool
+persuasiveness fitted him for his task, he was told; his work would be
+to visit all the parishes on the north shore, with the aim of winning
+the loyal support of the French Canadians during the coming struggle.
+Though fifteen years of tranquility under the mild British sway had made
+the habitants prosperous and averse to war, it was still possible to get
+from them useful military service, under the leadership of British
+officers. Nairne was to tell them that the Americans would borrow their
+dollars, take their provisions, pay for them only in worthless letters
+of credit upon the Congress, and even make free with their lands. He was
+to show, also, how bitterly the Protestant English colonies hated the
+Roman Catholic faith of the Canadians. A British fleet, he was to add,
+would soon arrive and, if the Canadians joined the revolt, the second
+British conquest would be shorter and not quite so gentle as the first;
+for "a fair and open enemy is a different thing from a rebel and a
+traitor."
+
+Fifteen years earlier the Canadians had borne a heavy part in defending
+their country against the British assailant; now they were to fight in
+his interests. Whenever possible Nairne was to employ the same old
+Captains of militia who had fought the battles of France against the
+British; he was to make a roll of those fit to bear arms, and to report
+the number of discharged soldiers in his district. To him were entrusted
+commissions for Captains whom he might select; the inferior officers he
+might also name. The Church aided his work as much as possible, the
+Vicar-General sending to the priests instructions to this effect.
+
+On taking up his task Nairne found that at Murray Bay there were
+thirty-two men between the ages of 16 and 55. When summoned to meet him
+they were respectful, but showed fear of having to serve in the army and
+pleaded that they were only a new settlement. Had there been, as is so
+generally supposed, many disbanded soldiers among them we should have
+had a different tale but, already, in 1775, most of the people at Murray
+Bay were French. Neither they nor their neighbours showed any zeal for
+the upholding of British rule in Canada. At Les Eboulements and Baie St.
+Paul, whither Nairne went, the inhabitants were respectful, as at Murray
+Bay, but also objected to military service. At Isle aux Coudres they
+disregarded Nairne's summons to meet him, while at St. Anne de Beaupre
+they made open manifestations of hostility.
+
+In the actual fighting, now imminent, Nairne was eager to take part,
+and, on August 12th, he wrote to Sir Guy Carleton offering himself for
+any service and applying for a vacant captaincy. On the 9th of September
+he received an urgent summons to Quebec, and, from that time, for six or
+seven years, he was engaged in the great fratricidal struggle.
+
+Again, in a time of crisis, Great Britain made special use of the
+Highlanders. Many of those who had served during the conquest of Canada
+had become settlers in the New World. Now at the call to arms some of
+them--between one and two hundred--rallied again to fight Britain's
+battles. They were formed into a regiment known as the Royal Highland
+Emigrants. It was not a regular corps but was organized for this special
+campaign only. Nairne's rank in the regular army was that of Captain;
+now he was given the duty of Major, though this promotion was not yet
+permanent. Malcolm Fraser served in the same corps as Captain and
+Paymaster. The commanding officer, Colonel Allan McLean, was brave and
+indefatigable and he and his Highlanders played a creditable part in the
+work of saving Canada for Britain.
+
+When the American colonies saw that the war was inevitable they saw too
+that Quebec was the key of the situation. Washington himself declared
+that in favour of the holders of Quebec would the balance turn in the
+great conflict. From the outset there was an eager desire to attack the
+Canadian capital. Washington believed--with some truth, indeed,--that
+its defences were ridiculous. He thought, too, that the Governor, Sir
+Guy Carleton, had no money to buy even provisions, that the Canadians
+were eager to throw off the yoke of Great Britain and to co-operate with
+the revolted colonies, and that some even of the few regulars to be
+found in Quebec would join the colonial army. To take Quebec seemed,
+therefore, comparatively easy, and the task was undertaken by a man with
+a sinister name for posterity as a traitor to the young republic, but a
+vigorous and able officer,--Colonel Benedict Arnold. Wolfe's role Arnold
+essayed to play and Wolfe's fame he fondly hoped would be his.
+
+A fundamental difference existed, however, between Arnold's task and
+that of Wolfe. Wolfe's army had been carried to Quebec in ships;
+Arnold's was to advance by land. He chose the shortest route to Quebec
+from the New England seaboard. It lay through the untrodden wilderness
+and its difficulties were terrible. Half of it was up the Kennebec river
+along whose shallow upper reaches the men would have to drag their boats
+on chill autumn days in water sometimes to their waists; then they must
+take them over the steep watershed dividing the waters flowing northward
+to the St. Lawrence from those flowing southward to the Atlantic. Even
+when they embarked on the upper waters of the Chaudiere, which flows
+into the St. Lawrence near Quebec, the hardships were killing. The
+numerous rapids and falls on that swift and turbulent river would wreck
+their boats. At the time no fleet defended Quebec. If, instead of
+advancing by this land route, the Americans had been able to bring, by
+sea, an adequate force as Wolfe had done, the later history of Canada
+might indeed have been different.
+
+Arnold set out in the middle of September with 1100 or 1200 men,--"the
+very flower of the colonial youth" they have been called. Many were
+hardy frontier men trained in Indian wars, who knew well the
+difficulties of the wilderness. But now they were face to face with
+something more difficult than they had ever before encountered. When one
+Parson Emerson had committed the enterprise to the divine care in a
+prayer that, tradition says, lasted for one hour and three-quarters, the
+army began its struggle across the dreadful three hundred miles of
+forest. The swollen rivers swept away much ammunition and food, until
+upon the army settled down the horror of starvation. The boats proved to
+be badly built; their crews were always wet and shivering. At night the
+men had sometimes to gather on a narrow footing of dry land in the midst
+of a swamp and huddled over a fire that at any moment rain might
+extinguish. The cold became terrible. Many lay down by the trail to die.
+When the journey was half over, Colonel Enos, deeming it useless to lead
+the force farther amid such conditions, turned back. With him went some
+hundreds of men; but Arnold held on grimly. He pushed ahead to get
+succour for his starving force from the Canadian settlements near
+Quebec. With a few boats and canoes his party committed themselves to
+the Chaudiere river. In two hours Arnold was swept down twenty miles,
+steering as best he could through the rapids, and avoiding the rocks, in
+the angry river. At one place all his boats and canoes were carried over
+a fall and capsized, the occupants struggling to land. But this reckless
+courage did wonders. By October 30th, after more than a month of
+unspeakable hardship, Arnold had reached the borderland of civilization
+in Canada, and was sending back provisions to his men. It is little
+short of marvellous that at Point Levi on November 9th he could muster
+six hundred men, five hundred of whom were fit for duty.
+
+The Canadians and Indians had been very friendly; without their aid the
+greater part of Arnold's force would have perished. Even before Quebec
+he was dependent on their kindly offices. Its defenders, among whom were
+Nairne and Fraser, moved every boat to the north side of the St.
+Lawrence; the frigate _Lizard_ and the sloop-of-war _Hunter_, pigmy
+representatives at Quebec of Britain's might upon the sea, lay near
+Wolfe's Cove ready to attack him if he tried to cross. But the Indians
+brought canoes and on the night of November 13th, silently and
+unobserved, they carried Arnold's force across the river almost under
+the bows of the ships watching for them. The Americans landed where
+Wolfe had landed sixteen years earlier. On the morning of the 14th, to
+the surprise of Quebec's garrison, a body of Americans appeared on the
+Plains of Abraham, not eight hundred yards from the walls, and gave
+three loud huzzas. The British answered with three cheers and with the
+more effective retort of cannon, loaded with grape and canister shot,
+and the hardy pioneers of Arnold's attacking force retired.
+
+Quebec was not in a happy situation. Montreal had already fallen to the
+Americans advancing by Lake Champlain, and to force the final surrender
+of Canada General Montgomery was hurrying to join Arnold at Quebec. For
+a time its defenders were uncertain whether Carleton himself, absent at
+Montreal, had not fallen into the hands of the enemy. A miraculous
+escape he indeed had. Leaving Montreal on a dark night, when the
+Americans were already within the town, Carleton went in a skiff down
+the river, both shores of which were already occupied by the enemy for
+fifty miles below Montreal. At the narrows at Berthier their blazing
+camp fires sent light far out over the surface of the water. Carleton's
+party could hear the sentry's shout of "All's Well," and the barking of
+dogs. But they let the boat float down with the current so that it might
+look like drifting timber, and, when they could, impelled it silently
+with their hands. At Three Rivers they thought themselves safe and
+Carleton lay down in a house to sleep. But, while he was resting, some
+American soldiers entered the house. His disguise as a peasant saved
+him; he passed out unchecked. The skiff soon carried him to an armed
+brig, the _Fell_, which lay at the foot of the Richelieu Rapids. He
+hastened on to Quebec, which showed joy unspeakable when he arrived on
+November 19th. Meanwhile Montgomery pursued his rival down the river and
+on December 1st he joined Arnold before Quebec.
+
+Now the siege began in earnest. Carleton had 1800 men; Arnold and
+Montgomery can hardly have had more than a thousand, and these were
+badly equipped. For the Americans the prospects of success were, at no
+time, very great, unless they could secure help from the Canadians.
+This, indeed, was not wholly wanting. Montgomery's march along the north
+shore of the St. Lawrence to Quebec was a veritable triumph. He promised
+to the habitants liberty, freedom from heavy taxes, the abolition of the
+seigneurs' rights and other good things. Some of the Canadians hoped
+that, in joining the Americans, they were hastening the restoration of
+France's power in Canada--an argument however of little weight with
+many, who remembered grim days of hard service and starvation when,
+without appreciation or reward, they had fought France's battle. The
+habitants were, in truth, friendly enough to the Americans; but they
+would not fight for them. The invaders tried to arouse the fear of the
+peasantry by a tale that when the British caught sixty rebel Canadians,
+they had hanged them over the ramparts of Quebec, without time even to
+say "Lord, have mercy upon me," and had thrown their bodies to the dogs.
+But this only made the habitants think it as well perhaps not to take
+arms openly against such stern masters. The Church's weight was wholly
+on the British side. Canadians who joined the rebel Americans died
+without her last rites. Only one priest, M. de Lotbiniere, a man, it is
+said, of profligate character, espoused the cause of the invaders. For
+doing so he was promised a bishopric: to see Puritan New Englanders
+offering a bishopric in the Roman Catholic Church as a reward for
+service, is not without its humour.
+
+As December wore on Montgomery grew eager to seize his prey. Carleton
+sat unmoved behind his walls and allowed the enemy to invest the town.
+He would hold no communication with the rebel army. When Montgomery sent
+messengers to the gates, under a flag of truce, Carleton would not
+receive them; the only message he would take, he said, would be an
+appeal to the mercy of the King, against whom they were in rebellion.
+Montgomery, too, showed for his foe lofty scorn, in words at least. On
+December 15th in General Orders he spoke of "the wretched garrison"
+posted behind the walls of Quebec, "consisting of sailors unacquainted
+with the use of arms, of citizens incapable of the soldier's duty and
+[a gibe at the corps in which Nairne served] a few miserable emigrants."
+He went on to promise his troops that when they took Quebec "the effects
+of the Governor, garrison, and of such as have been active in misleading
+the inhabitants and distressing the friends of liberty" should be
+equally divided among the victors. The opposing sides showed, in truth,
+the bitterness and exasperation of family quarrels and abandoned the
+usual courtesies of war. The Americans lay in wait to shoot sentries;
+they fired on single persons walking on the ramparts. It was reported to
+the British that Montgomery had said "he would dine in Quebec or in Hell
+on Christmas"--gossip probably untrue, as a British diarist of the time
+is fair enough to note, since it is not in accord with the dignity and
+sobriety of Montgomery's character.
+
+He did what he could to make possible this Christmas festivity within
+Quebec's walls. His men got together some five hundred scaling ladders.
+Then heavy snow came and the defenders jeered at such preparations: "Can
+they think it possible that they can approach the walls laden with
+ladders, sinking to the middle every step in snow? Where shall we be
+then? Shall we be looking on cross-armed?" The clear and inconceivably
+cold weather was also one of Quebec's defences for, as one diarist puts
+it, no man, after being exposed to it for ten minutes, could hold arms
+in his half-frozen hands firmly enough to do any execution. But by
+nothing short of death itself was Montgomery to be daunted; steadily he
+made his plans to assault the town.
+
+Meanwhile Quebec was ready. Carleton ordered out of the town all who
+could not assist to the best of their power in the defence. Some shammed
+illness to escape their tasks. But this was the exception. Well-to-do
+citizens worked zealously, took their share of sentry duty on the
+bitterly cold nights, and submitted to the commands of officers in the
+militia, their inferiors in education and fortune. On the loftiest point
+of Cape Diamond Carleton erected a mast, thirty feet high, with a sentry
+box at its top. From this he could command a bird's eye view of the
+enemy's operations, to a point as distant as Ste. Foy Church. When one
+of the besiegers asked a loyalist Canadian what the queer-looking object
+on the pole really was he answered, "It is a wooden horse with a bundle
+of hay before him." A second remark capped this one: "General Carleton
+has said that he will not give up the town till the horse has ate all
+the hay; and the General is a man of his word."
+
+Although Montgomery did not eat his Christmas dinner in Quebec a few
+days later he was ready for an assault. The crisis came on the last day
+of the year 1775. Early on that day, between four and five in the
+morning, Captain Malcolm Fraser, in command of the main guard, was
+going his rounds in Quebec when he saw a signal thrown by the enemy from
+the heights outside the walls near Cape Diamond. Fraser knew at once
+that it meant an attack. He sent word to the other guards in Quebec and
+ordered the ringing of the alarm bell, and the drum-beat to arms. He
+himself ran down St. Louis street, shouting to the guards to "Turn out"
+as loudly and often as he could, and with such effect that he was heard
+even by General Carleton, lodged at the Recollet convent. It was a
+boisterous night and the elements themselves raged so fiercely that some
+of the alarms were not heard. But, in time, all Quebec was aroused and
+the guards stood at their posts.
+
+The alarm was completed when to its din was added the menacing sound of
+cannon. The besiegers began to ply the town with shells, and those who
+looked out over the ramparts could see in the darkness the flash of
+guns. Soon began from behind ridges of snow, within eighty yards of the
+walls of Cape Diamond, the patter of musketry. The Americans were
+seeking to lead the defenders of Quebec to believe that an assault on
+the walls of the Upper Town on the side of the Plains of Abraham was
+imminent and to hold the defence to this point. In fact the real danger
+was far away.
+
+[Illustration: THE MANOR HOUSE AT MURRAY BAY
+
+(The upper view from the West, the lower from the East)]
+
+Montgomery's was a hazardous plan. He had resolved to try to seize the
+Lower Town first and then to get his troops into the Upper Town by
+way of the steep Mountain Street, thus taking the defenders of the walls
+in the rear. It was a desperate venture, depending for its success
+largely upon the surprise of the garrison which Malcolm Fraser's
+thorough-going alarm had prevented. Montgomery himself, with a force of
+several hundred men, marched to the Lower Town from Wolfe's Cove along
+the narrow path under the cliffs, a distance of nearly two miles, with
+progress impeded by darkness, by heavy snow-drifts, and by blocks of ice
+which the tide had strewn along the shore. His men struggled on in the
+dark hoping to surprise the post which guarded the road below Cape
+Diamond at a point called Pres de Ville. Here were some fifty defenders
+and the tale of what happened is soon told. The guardians of the post
+were on the alert, for at it, too, Malcolm Fraser's warning had been
+effective. As Montgomery bravely advanced, at the head of his men, there
+was a flash and a roar in the darkness and the blinding snow storm, and,
+a moment after, Montgomery lay dead in the snow with a bullet through
+his head. Two or three other officers were struck down. The British
+heard groans and then there was silence. As daylight came they saw hands
+and arms protruding from the snow, but only slowly did they realize that
+the chief of their foes was killed.
+
+Nairne was on duty elsewhere but he did not miss severe fighting. Arnold
+was to advance on the Lower Town from the north-eastern suburb, St.
+Roch's, to meet at the foot of Mountain Street Montgomery coming from
+the west. At first he was more fortunate than Montgomery. When the
+rocket from Cape Diamond went up he set out. The storm was frightful but
+it served to conceal Arnold's force from Quebec's sentries. The
+Americans passed under the height where stands the Hotel Dieu. Here
+Nairne was stationed with a small guard. They spied the Americans in the
+darkness and kept up as effective a fire as the dim light permitted. But
+the assailants were able to advance along the whole east side of Quebec
+and to reach the entrance to the Sault au Matelot, a short and narrow
+street opening into the steep Mountain Street, by which alone the Upper
+Town could be reached. Here fortune favoured them for, apparently, in
+spite of Fraser's alarm, they surprised the guard at the first barrier
+by which the street was closed. The street itself they secured but when
+they reached the second barrier at its farther end, commanding the road
+to the Upper Town, it was well defended by an alert garrison. Arnold had
+already been wounded and taken to the rear and Morgan, an intrepid
+leader, was in command of the assailing force. Every moment he expected
+that Montgomery would arrive to attack the second barrier on the Sault
+au Matelot from the West as he attacked it from the East. But
+Montgomery was dead and Morgan waited in vain.
+
+While the Americans were checked by the second barrier, Carleton was not
+idle. There was an excellent chance to send a force out of the Palace
+Gate near the Hotel Dieu, by which the assailants had passed, and to
+attack them in the rear. For this duty Colonel Caldwell was told off and
+he took with him Nairne and his picket of about thirty men. The force
+plodded through the deep snow in the tracks of the enemy who, about
+daybreak, were astonished to find themselves shut in by British forces
+at each end of the Sault au Matelot. A hand to hand fight followed. The
+Americans took refuge in the houses of the street and it was the task of
+the British to drive them out. In this Nairne distinguished himself.
+"Major Nairne of the Royal Emigrants and M. Dambourges of the same corps
+by their gallant behaviour attracted the attention of every body,"
+writes an English officer.[8] By ladders, taken from the enemy, they
+mounted to a window of one of the houses, from which came a destructive
+fire, and at the point of the bayonet drove the foe out by the door into
+the street. In the end, to the number of more than four hundred, the
+Americans were forced to surrender. The casualties included thirty
+killed and forty-two wounded. By eight o'clock all was over. "It was
+the first time I ever happened to be so closely engaged," Nairne wrote
+to his sister on May 14th, 1776, "as we were obliged to push our
+bayonets. It is certainly a disagreeable necessity to be obliged to put
+one another to death, especially those speaking the same language and
+dressed in the same manner with ourselves.... These mad people had a
+large piece of white linen or paper upon their foreheads with the words
+"Liberty or Death" wrote upon it." Nairne's account is modest enough.
+One would not gather from it that his own conspicuous courage had
+obtained general recognition.[9]
+
+Even with Montgomery killed, Arnold wounded, and quite one-quarter of
+their force dead or captured, those grim men who wished "Liberty or
+Death" had no thought of raising the siege. Ere long Arnold was again
+active and, for four months longer, the Americans kept Carleton shut up
+within Quebec. So deep lay the snow that to walk into the ditch from the
+embrasures in the walls was easy; buried in the snow were the muzzles of
+guns thirty feet from the bottom of the ditch. Sometimes Nairne was
+actively engaged in scouting work. In February we find him leading a
+party to take possession of the English burying ground in the suburbs;
+on March 19th, he went out into the open from Cape Diamond to the
+height overlooking the Anse de Mer. But nothing happened; a diarist
+expresses, on April 21st, his contempt for the American attack by
+writing: "Hitherto they have killed a boy, wounded a soldier, and broke
+the leg of a turkey."[10]
+
+The assailants were, in truth, impotent before the masterly inactivity
+of Carleton, who waited patiently behind his walls for the arrival in
+the spring of a British fleet. Counting upon this expectancy the
+Americans tried an old-time ruse. Between nine and ten o'clock in the
+evening of May 3rd, with the moon shining brightly and the tide flowing
+in and nearly high, a ship under full sail came into view from the
+direction of the Island of Orleans. With the wind behind her she swung
+in at a good rate of speed. Those who watched were, for a moment, sure
+that the long expected rescue had come. But, as she bore down to the
+_cul de sac_ where lay the shipping at Quebec, she made no response to
+signals. At last, the British, after three vain efforts to draw a
+response, warned her to reply or they should fire. When this threat was
+carried out she was only some two hundred yards away. Then suddenly
+flames burst out on the ship, followed by random explosions; a boat left
+her side rowed very swiftly, and it was now apparent that she was sent
+to burn, if possible, the British shipping. It must have been an
+anxious moment when she was so near and heading straight for her prey.
+But, showing a natural prudence, those who steered left her too soon
+and, with no hand at the helm, her head came up quickly in the wind. By
+this time all Quebec had been alarmed and, as attack from the landward
+side was also expected, every man was soon at his post. The ship was a
+striking sight as, with sails and rigging on fire, she drifted
+helplessly before the town. When the tide turned she floated down, a
+mass of fire, with explosions shaking her from time to time, to the
+shallows off Beauport where she soon lay stranded, a blackened ruin of
+half-burnt timbers.
+
+Quebec still waited for rescue, and not in vain. At day break, on the
+6th of May, a frigate appeared round Point Levi. Again went forth the
+cry of "A ship," "A ship." "The news," we are told, "soon reached every
+pillow in town." Men half dressed rushed to the Grand Battery, which was
+quickly crowded with spectators, who indulged in much shaking of hands,
+and in the exchange of compliments, as the character of the ship became
+clear. She was the British frigate _Surprise_, and, with much
+difficulty, had forced her way, under full sail, through the great
+fields of ice which still blocked the river. Following her closely were
+the _Isis_ and a sloop the _Martin_. Quebec went wild with joy. But
+there was still serious business on hand. The _Surprise_ brought a part
+of the 29th regiment and a good many marines. They were landed at once.
+Carleton lost not a moment and, by twelve o'clock of the same day, the
+gates of Quebec were thrown open and he marched out to attack the
+Americans.
+
+It was only a thin red line that stretched across the Plains of Abraham.
+But the Americans dared not face it. The newly arrived ships might, they
+feared, carry a force up the river and cut off retreat; so, after some
+desultory skirmishing, the investing army fled. It was now commanded by
+General Wooster, for Arnold had gone to Montreal. The flight soon became
+a panic. Arms, clothes, food, private letters and papers were thrown
+away. Nairne was in command of a portion of the Highland Emigrants, who
+were the vanguard of the British pursuing force, and was among the first
+to occupy the American batteries. On that very ground he had fought,
+victorious in 1759, woefully beaten in 1760; now, a victor again, he
+helped to drive back a force, some of whose members had been his
+companions in those earlier campaigns. That night the relieved British
+slept secure in Quebec, while the bedraggled American force was making
+its distressful way towards Montreal.
+
+Though the American army soon withdrew from Montreal and from Canada,
+the war was still to drag on for many weary years. Throughout the whole
+of it Nairne remained on active service. In September, 1776, we find
+him in command of the garrison at Montreal. In 1777 he was sent to
+command the post at Isle aux Noix which guarded the route into Canada by
+way of Lake Champlain. Here Fraser was serving under him as Captain; the
+two friends were usually together throughout the war. At Isle aux Noix
+Nairne remained until June, 1779. We get glimpses from his letters of
+the defects in the service at this time. There were involuntary evils,
+such as scurvy, caused by want of fresh meat and vegetables, but
+relieved by drinking a decoction of hemlock spruce. Moral evils there
+were too, such as gambling and drunkenness; in 1778 the commanding
+officer gave warning that he had heard of losses at play, and that those
+taking part in such practises would be excluded from promotion.
+
+The British officers showed sometimes a fool-hardy recklessness. On
+March 9th, 1778, one Lieutenant Mackinnon, with forty-five volunteers,
+set out from Pointe au Fer, near Isle aux Noix, to surprise an American
+post at Parsons' House, no less than sixty miles distant, and in the
+heart of the enemy's country. A few days later two of the volunteers
+returned with news that the attack had wholly failed, that six of the
+party were killed and six wounded, and that Lieutenant Mackinnon and
+four others were missing. So reckless an attack was bad enough and, in
+the General Orders, it was condemned as "a presumptuous disregard of
+military discipline"; only vigilance and watchfulness were required of
+the picket at Pointe au Fer, so that the enemy might not invade the
+province. At the incident the Commander-in-Chief was very angry. "I
+never saw the General in such a passion in my life," wrote an officer to
+Nairne. Mackinnon had surrounded the house in the darkness and both he
+and his men, as far as is known, had done their best. Though wounded and
+for a time missing, in the end Mackinnon got back crippled to Isle aux
+Noix. But he had failed, and whispers soon began that he showed
+cowardice in the attack; an absurd charge, as Nairne said, for he had
+given proof of rather too much, than of too little, courage. The
+accusation gave Nairne infinite trouble. The subalterns in the Royal
+Highland Emigrants refused to do duty with Mackinnon, and General
+Haldimand, who succeeded Carleton in the summer of 1778, would not take
+the matter seriously enough to grant a Court Martial, that Mackinnon
+might clear himself. For quite a year and a half the affair dragged on.
+In the end, at a Court of Enquiry, Mackinnon was acquitted. Haldimand
+told Nairne to rebuke the officers sternly for combining to subvert
+authority, for disrespect to their superiors, and for refusing, on the
+basis of futile reports and hearsays, to serve with Mackinnon. "I much
+mistake his character," wrote Nairne of Mackinnon, "if he can ... be
+prevented from calling one or two of those gentlemen to a severe
+account."
+
+A part of Nairne's duty was to watch the French Canadians and check
+sedition. In spite of the failure of Arnold's expedition many of them
+were still favourable to the American cause. They harboured deserters in
+the remoter parishes, gave protection and assistance to rebels, and
+threw as many difficulties as possible in the path of loyalists. Nairne
+found two men issuing papers from a printing press to foment sedition
+and sent them down to Quebec to stand their trial for treason.
+
+From Isle aux Noix Nairne was sent, in the summer of 1779, with fifty of
+his Royal Highland Emigrants, to command at Carleton Island, near
+Kingston where Lake Ontario flows into the St. Lawrence; some
+thirty-five years later his only surviving son held a military command
+at the same place. Here there was much to do in strengthening the
+fortifications and in keeping up communications with Niagara and other
+points in the interior. The situation was not without its
+embarrassments. Prisoners were sent in from Niagara and he had no prison
+in which to keep them. For want of fresh meat and vegetables there was
+much sickness. But the Indians were his greatest trial. Through him came
+their supplies and, to hold them at all, he had sometimes to serve out
+the rum for which such savages are always greedy. On July 4th, Nairne
+made a speech to these Mississaga Indians and said pretty plainly what
+he thought of them. Against the American scouts they had proved no
+defence; at night they fired off guns in the neighbouring woods and
+created false alarms, which prevented Nairne's men from getting their
+proper sleep. "My men work hard in the day," he said, "and I will have
+them to sleep sound at night," and he warned the Indians that he would
+fire upon them if their noise disturbed him further. The savages, he
+wrote to Haldimand, are "almost unbearable, greedy and importunate."
+They behaved more like rebels than friends and their talk ended always
+in the demand for rum, "the cause of all bad behaviour in Indians."
+
+On the remoter frontiers the war was ruthless beyond measure. Sir John
+Johnson devastated the Mohawk valley, in the present State of New York,
+and some of his prisoners were received at Carleton Island. Of this
+inglorious warfare Haldimand's secretary, Captain Matthews, wrote to
+Nairne a little later [17th June, 1780], "You will have heard that Sir
+John Johnson has executed the purpose of his enterprise without the loss
+of a man, having destroyed upwards of an hundred dwelling houses, barns,
+mills, stock, &c., and brought off 150 Loyalists, besides Women and
+Children." The worst outrages came from the Indian allies, of whom
+Nairne thought so badly. From Niagara, on March 1st, 1779, Captain John
+MacDonnell wrote to Nairne of the terrible massacre at Cherry Valley, on
+the New York frontier, which excited horror throughout the colonies, and
+did much to inflame the hatred of the Americans for England. Not,
+however, the English but the Indians were really guilty. "There has
+nothing appeared," wrote Captain MacDonnell, "on the theatre of the war
+of near so tragical or rather barbarous a hue; the reflection never
+represents itself to my view but when accompanyed with the greatest
+horrors; both Sexes, young and old Tomahawked, Speared and Scalped
+indiscriminately in the most inhuman and cruel manner. But that there
+was all possible care and precaution taken to prevent them is
+undenyable. Captain Butler, who had command of the expedition, was
+indefatigable in his endeavours and exertions to restrain and mitigate
+the fury and ferocity of the savages often at the risk of the Tomahawk
+being made use of against himself as well as the Indian officers.... Out
+of a hundred and seventy scalps three-fourths were those of Women and
+Children." Butler's name is still looked upon in the United States as
+that of a fiend incarnate, but the testimony of his fellow officer seems
+to free him from blame for the worst of the horrors. Both sides were
+bitter, but Nairne himself never shows any vehemence of passion. In his
+view the war was a painful necessity, to be fought to the end without
+anger.
+
+Late in 1779, Nairne was recalled from Carleton Island. He reached
+Montreal on the 5th of December, and, two days later, secured leave of
+absence to look after his private affairs. At this time General
+Haldimand had matured a plan to take advantage of the remote position of
+Murray Bay to confine there some of his American prisoners. At Murray
+Bay they seemed particularly safe. There was as yet no road over Cap
+Tourmente; in any case to go in the direction of Quebec would mean
+seizure sooner or later; to go in the opposite direction would be to
+perish in the wilderness; and the only outlet was by water across a
+wintry river some twelve miles broad. On the 26th of January, 1780,
+Haldimand wrote to Nairne at Murray Bay that he was to erect buildings
+for rebel and other prisoners, and that, to do the work, some men were
+being sent down; he was to employ in addition as many of the inhabitants
+as he might think necessary.
+
+Nairne stayed on at Murray Bay in 1780 much longer than the two months
+for which he had originally asked. A part of his duty was to watch that
+American colony, so different in station and situation from the many
+Americans who now visit the spot. As yet there were no barracks in which
+to confine the poor fellows, and the climate of Murray Bay is not too
+hospitable in winter. Some kind of rough quarters must have been
+prepared for the prisoners, in the winter of 1779-80, and they were kept
+busy in helping to build the houses intended for their occupation. They
+seemed contented. One of them Nairne kept about his person. He knew
+where everything was placed and all the men were used, Nairne says, in
+the best manner he could think of. But liberty is sweet and they longed
+for their own land. So, early in May, 1780, when the ice was out of the
+river and there was a chance to get away, eight of them made a dash for
+liberty.[11] No doubt under cover of night, they stole a boat and put
+out boldly into the great river across which, in so small a craft, few
+ever venture, even in mild summer weather. Almost wonderful to relate,
+they reached the south shore in safety. Nairne was uncertain whether
+they had gone up, down, or across the river. He hurried to Tadousac,
+crossed to Cacouna and then went up the south shore. At St. Roch he
+found that the men, rowing a boat, had been seen to pass. On May 14th
+this boat was found abandoned. On the 15th the men were seen on the
+highway carrying their packs. We are almost sorry to learn that the poor
+fellows were in the end captured and taken to Quebec. Nairne reported
+the flight of these men on the 14th of May. Their example was contagious
+for, on the 18th, while he was absent in their pursuit, four others
+made off, found a small boat on the shore some nine miles from Malbaie,
+and put out into the river, where their tiny craft was seen heading for
+Kamouraska on the south shore. A few days later two others also escaped.
+These had not courage to strike out into the river, and one of them was
+caught at Baie St. Paul. Nairne offered a reward of four dollars for
+each of the prisoners and probably all were taken. A sequel of the
+incident was that a non-commissioned officer and eight men of the
+Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment were sent to guard the remaining prisoners at
+Murray Bay--a task apparently beyond Nairne's local militia. This guard
+was, no doubt, composed of Germans; one wonders to what extent they
+fraternized with the French Canadians. It is amusing to read that, when
+one of them deserted, he was brought back by a habitant.
+
+In 1781 we find Nairne stationed at Vercheres on the south side of the
+St. Lawrence, nearly opposite Montreal. He was now in charge of the
+expatriated Loyalists who had found refuge in that part of Canada. A
+whole corps of them were billeted in the two parishes of Vercheres and
+Contrecoeur--the officers chiefly at Contrecoeur. They lived, of
+course, in the cottages with the habitants. On December 16th, 1781,
+Nairne writes to General Riedesel, a German officer who played a
+conspicuous part on the British side in the Revolutionary war and was
+now in command at Sorel, that the Canadians do not mind supplying
+firewood for the loyalist officers but that they rather object to having
+the same people quartered upon them for two years at a time. Though an
+occasional officer had said that the Loyalists were not obedient, he
+adds that they were quiet and orderly people. Some of them had large
+families and must have crowded uncomfortably their involuntary hosts.
+These colonial English living in the households of their old-time
+enemies, the French Canadians, make a somewhat pathetic picture. We see
+what domestic suffering the Revolutionary War involved. Some were very
+old; one "genteel sort of woman," a widow, had four children, the
+youngest but four months old; there was another whose husband had been
+hanged at Saratoga as a spy. Very large sums passed through Nairne's
+hands in behalf of the Loyalists. One account which he renders amounts
+to about L20,000.[12]
+
+Nairne's regiment, the Royal Highland Emigrants, had been put upon the
+permanent establishment in 1779. Sometimes he complained that his own
+promotion was slow; not until the spring of 1783 was he given the rank
+of Lieutenant-Colonel. Having reached this goal he intended, as soon as
+he decently could, to sell out and retire. Late in 1782 we find him
+again in command at Isle aux Noix and not sure but that he may at any
+time be surprised by the Americans. It seems odd that, though Cornwallis
+had already surrendered at Yorktown, and the war was really over, Nairne
+was still hoping for final victory for Great Britain; on February 8th,
+1783, he writes: "It is to be hoped that affairs will at last take a
+favourable turn to Great Britain; her cause is really a just one." In
+fact preliminary articles of the most disastrous peace Great Britain has
+ever made had already been signed.
+
+Nairne was now anxious to go home. But even in June, 1783, he could not
+get leave of absence from Isle aux Noix for even a fortnight. Conditions
+were still unsettled. American traders were now pressing into Canada but
+Nairne sent back any that he caught; the cessation of arms was, he said,
+no warrant as yet for commercial intercourse and many suspicious
+characters were about. The troops from Europe were returning home.
+General Riedesel, about to leave for Germany, wrote from Sorel on July
+6th, 1783, a warm letter of thanks to Nairne for the attention,
+readiness, and punctuality of his services. Not long after, in the same
+year, Nairne was at last free. He now sold his commission, receiving for
+it L3,000. With the sale he renounced all claim to half-pay, pension, or
+other consideration for past services and the sum he received was,
+therefore, no very great final reward for his long services. There had
+been some competition for this commission and its final disposal throws
+some light on promotion in the army under the purchase system. General
+Haldimand insisted that Captain Matthews, who appears to have been his
+relative, should get it, since the General "must provide for his own
+family." At this time Malcolm Fraser too thought of selling out but he
+made difficulties about terms and the opportunity passed; Fraser was,
+indeed, to live to see recruiting service in the war of 1812. When the
+war was over, Nairne hurried to Murray Bay and to the country life in
+which he delighted, and in his correspondence we soon find him
+discussing not high questions of national defence but the qualities of
+"a well-bred bull calf" and of an improved plough. "I have more
+satisfaction," he says, perhaps with a touch of irony, "in a country
+life and [in] cultivating a farm than even [in] being employed as first
+major of the Quebec militia." Henceforth his heart is wholly at Murray
+Bay and in his interests there.
+
+[Footnote 8: Diary of an English Officer. Proceedings of the Literary
+and Historical Society of Quebec, 1871-72, p. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 9: See Appendix C., p. 273, for the text of his letter to his
+sister describing the operations of the winter at Quebec. It is an able
+review of the campaign.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Proceedings of the Literary and Historical Society of
+Quebec, 7th Series, 1905, p. 75; "Blockade of Quebec," etc.]
+
+[Footnote 11: The men's names were Peter Ferris, Squir Ferris, Claudius
+Brittle (Sr.), Claudius Brittle (Jr.), Nathan Smith, Marshal Smith,
+Justice Sturdevant, John Ward.]
+
+[Footnote 12: The book in which Nairne kept the accounts, with the names
+of the recipients of the king's bounty, is still at Murray Bay.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN NAIRNE
+
+     Nairne's careful education of his children.--His son John enters
+     the army.--Nairne's counsels to his son.--John Nairne goes to
+     India.--His death.--Nairne's declining years.--His activities at
+     Murray Bay.--His income.--His daughter Christine and Quebec
+     society.--The isolation of Murray Bay in Winter.--Signals across
+     the river.--Nairne's reading.--His notes about current events.--The
+     fear of a French invasion of England.--Thoughts of flight from
+     Scotland to Murray Bay.--Nairne's last letter, April 20th,
+     1802.--His death and burial at Quebec.
+
+
+Colonel Nairne's life was troubled with many sorrows. In 1773, when he
+was on a visit to Scotland, Malcolm Fraser had had the painful duty of
+writing to tell him of the death of three of his infant children at
+Murray Bay from a prevailing epidemic. His daughter, Anne, born in 1784,
+was sent to Scotland to be educated. She contracted consumption and
+after a prolonged illness died there in 1796. "This event gave me great
+affliction," wrote Nairne, "she was always a most amiable child." There
+now remained two sons and three daughters,[13] and Nairne may well have
+been certain that his name would go down to an abundant posterity. One
+of the chief interests of his life was their training and education. All
+in turn were sent to Scotland for their chief schooling. The eldest son,
+John, born in 1777, and his sister Christine, some three years older,
+lived in Edinburgh with aunts who showed exhaustless kindness and
+interest. Nairne was grateful, and writing from Malbaie on August 27th,
+1791, he says: "[I] am glad of an opportunity, my dear Christine and
+Jack, to remind you both in the strongest manner I am able of the
+gratitude and assiduous Duty you owe to your Aunts and other Relations
+for admitting you into their family and also for the attention they are
+pleased to bestow on your education." Upon his children he imposes
+indeed counsels of perfection not easy to fulfil; "Remember it's my
+injunctions and absolute orders to you both to have always an obedient
+temper to your superiors ... to receive every reprimand with submission
+and attention as it can only be intended for your benefit in order to
+give you a valuable character which of all things is the greatest
+blessing both for this world and the next; besides you must consider
+that you are never to indulge yourselves in any sort of indolence or
+laziness but to rise early in the morning to be the more able to fulfil
+your Duty.... As to you, Jack, I expect to see you a Gallant and
+honourable fellow that will always scorn to tell the least lie in your
+life. It was well done to answer Captain Fraser [Malcolm Fraser, a
+Lieutenant in 1762, is still only a Captain in 1791!] with which he was
+well pleased.... Both of you have I think improved in your writing which
+gives me pleasure." He adds regretfully to Christine: "I cannot send you
+a muff this year but perhaps I may do so next year." The letter closes
+with a modest list of purchases to be sent out from Edinburgh for
+Malbaie: "one piece of Calico for two gowns; one piece of calico for
+children; three pieces of linen (for shirts), two of which coarse and
+the other a little finer; one yard of cambrick; five yards of muslin
+(for caps and Handkerchiefs); six yards of lace (for caps); twelve yards
+of different ribbons, three pairs of worsted stockings and three pairs
+of cotton stockings for myself."
+
+Jack was to follow a military career, and he entered the army when a
+youth of sixteen or seventeen. His first active service was in the West
+Indies, after war with revolutionary France broke out, and the dangers
+of that climate gave his father some anxiety; all will be well, he
+hopes, if Jack continues to take a certain "powder of the Jesuits'
+Bark"; above all "the best rules are temperance and sobriety"; then "the
+same gracious Power who protected me in many dangers through the course
+of three Wars will also vouchsafe protection to you through this one."
+In 1795, when Jack was only eighteen, his corps was back in England
+and, through the influence of a distant relative, General Graeme, with
+the Duke of York, Commander in Chief of the Army and all powerful in
+days when promotion went avowedly by favour and purchase rather than by
+merit, Jack secured a Lieutenancy in the 19th Regiment. His father was
+delighted: "I wish you much joy with all my heart of your quick rise in
+being at your age already a Lieutenant in an old Regiment whereas I was
+past twenty-six years of age before I obtained a Lieutenancy in the
+British service and that only in a young corps." At the time, with
+Britain warring on the French Directory, service in Europe for Jack was
+not unlikely, and was desired by Nairne. But in the end Jack's regiment
+was ordered to India. Nairne was sorely disappointed, but writing to
+Jack he laid down a great guiding principle: "we must suppose that
+Providence orders everything aright and that, provided we are always
+active and diligent in doing our duty, there is reason to be satisfied."
+In view of what was to happen, his anxiety for the success of his son is
+pathetic. He exhorts him in regard to every detail of conduct. He is to
+avoid drink and gambling; to pay his accounts promptly; to be punctual
+and scrupulously exact whenever duty or business is concerned. The
+father is particularly anxious about his son's capacity to express
+himself in good English and lays down the sound maxim that "writing a
+correct and easy style is undoubtedly of all education the most
+necessary and requisite." To acquire this he "ought to write and read a
+great deal with intense labour, attention and application"; to write
+several hours a day is not too much and to get time he must go to bed
+early and rise early. It is wise to keep a grammar and dictionary always
+at hand to correct possible errors. He should also translate from French
+into English. The father himself undertakes the duty of the complete
+letter writer, drawing up for Jack a model on which his letters may be
+based. "In writing ordinary letters (as in conversation) a large scope
+may be taken, as of News, all sorts of information, adventures,
+descriptions, remarks, enquirys, compliments, &c., &c., but in a letter
+upon business one is commonly confined only to what is necessary to be
+said on the subject and to civilitys and politeness." Certainly Jack did
+not lack admonition and when he does well his father writes that it
+makes him "very happy." When in one letter Jack mentions the practise of
+smoking his father is severe: "All our family have ever been temperate
+not [practising] even the Debauchery of smoking tobacco, a nasty Dutch,
+Damn'd custom, a forerunner of idleness and drunkenness; therefore Jack,
+my lad, let us hear no more of your handling your Pipe, but handle well
+your fuzee, your sword, your pen and your Books."
+
+Certainly the pictures sometimes drawn of the brutality, violent manners
+and ignorance of the British officer at this period find no confirmation
+in Nairne's monitions to his son, or in the account of his own military
+experience which dates from the mid-eighteenth century. He says to Jack:
+"Say your Prayers regularly to God Almighty and trust entirely to His
+Will and Pleasure for your own preservation.... If you should happen to
+be in an engagement attend to your men, encourage them to act with
+spirit in such a manner as most effectually to destroy their
+enemy's."[14] When Jack is a little too free in his demands for money
+the Colonel, writing on Nov. 22nd, 1795, tells him of his own
+experience:
+
+     I have done wrong in having given you so much money since you went
+     into the Army which might have served you almost without any pay
+     from the King and which by the bye I can little afford. You
+     obtained it easily; for which reason I suppose you have spent it
+     easily: you have no right to expect more than I had at your age yet
+     you seem to regard twenty pounds as I would have done twenty
+     shillings. But you must now understand that twenty pounds is a
+     considerable sum to my circumstances they being straitened for the
+     Rank and the family which I have to support; therefore I have to
+     inform you that you are to draw no more Bills upon Mr. Ker nor upon
+     me without first obtaining his or my consent in writing for so
+     doing. It is no disgrace nor does it hurt the service (but quite
+     the contrary) for every officer and soldier to live within the
+     limits of the pay which Government has thought proper to allow
+     them. They are thereby more led to temperance, to improve
+     themselves by study, to mind their duty and how best to promote the
+     service of their country. I served sixteen years as a subaltern
+     officer in the army, made long sea voyages with the Regiment,
+     furnished myself with sea stores, camp equipage and every other
+     necessary equipments [and] my Father nor any Relation during that
+     time was never [put to] one farthing's expense upon my account.
+     Altho' I sometimes lost money in the Recruiting service I repayed
+     it by stoppages from my pay, was always present with the men
+     whether in camp or in Garrison and punctually attending on my Duty.
+     I endeavoured to be in a good mess for my Dinner, drank small Beer
+     or Water when it was good; when the Water was bad qualified it with
+     a mixture of Wine or Ginger or Milk or Vinegar but no grog or
+     smoking tobacco. I was always an enemy to suppers, never engaged
+     myself in the Evenings, but on particular occasions or to be
+     Complaisant to Strangers. Nor [did I] ask Company to see me when on
+     Guard; nor show a Vanity to treat people. By which means I had a
+     great deal of quiet and sober time to myself, to read and to write,
+     &c., &c., especially as I always rose early in the Mornings. You
+     may believe also that I was always far from being concerned in any
+     sort of Gaming so as to risk losing any of my money or to have a
+     desire to gain any from others. By such a Conduct I received more
+     favour and regard sometimes from my Commanding officers even than I
+     thought I was entitled to.
+
+These monitions to Jack were written while his father was in Scotland in
+1795. There they separated, the father to return to Canada with
+Christine whose schooldays were now ended, Jack to go with his regiment
+to India. In parting from his son the father pronounced a solemn
+benediction: "that God may preserve you and assist you in following
+always that which is good and virtuous shall ever be my most earnest
+prayer." They never met again. Jack continued to draw rather freely upon
+his father for funds, and Nairne wrote to the Colonel of the regiment to
+ask for information about the young man. Before an answer came Scottish
+relatives learned in 1800 of Jack's fate and wrote of it to Murray Bay.
+A friend of the family in India had noticed in the newspaper that some
+one was promoted to John Nairne's place. This led to enquiry, when it
+was found that he had died in August, 1799. Not until six months after
+his death, and then only in reply to the enquiry as to Jack's demands
+for money, did his commanding officer write the following letter to
+Colonel Nairne:
+
+     _Colonel Dalrymple to Colonel Nairne_
+
+     _From Columbo [India], 1st Feb., 1800._
+
+     I received your letter dated October, 1798, but a short time ago
+     but too late, had there been any occasion to have spoken to your
+     son upon the subject it contained for, Poor fellow, it is with pain
+     I'm to inform you of his death. He died upon the 7th of August,
+     1799, in the Coimbalore country upon the return from the capture of
+     Seringapatam. Never did a young man die more regretted nor never
+     was an officer more beloved by his corps. He was an honour to his
+     profession. An involuntary tear starts in my eye on thus being
+     obliged to give you this painful information.
+
+     The cause of his having drawn for so much money from Bombay was
+     unfortunately his ship parted from us and they did not join at
+     Columbo for some months, where I understand he had been induced to
+     play by some designing people. But I assure you, from the moment he
+     joined here, his life was exemplary for all young men. He was
+     beloved by every description of people. From the very sudden way he
+     took the field and the very expensive mode of campaigning in this
+     country he was in debt to the paymaster. He was not singular; they
+     were all in the same predicament. The first division of the prize
+     money which was one thousand ster. Pagodas, about your hundred
+     pounds, will only clear him with the Regiment.
+
+Long before this letter arrived the news was known at Murray Bay.
+Malcolm Fraser, the tried family friend, writes on September 1st, 1800,
+that he has just discharged the most painful task of telling the sad
+news to Jack's sister and companion, Christine, who was visiting in
+Quebec. In his grief Nairne gives an exceeding bitter cry, "Lord, help
+me. I shall lose all my children before I go myself." His sister
+Magdalen wrote from Edinburgh on March 17th, 1800, to offer comfort and
+to hope that he bears the trial "with Christian fortitude, and that God
+will reward him by sparing those that remain to be a blessing to him,"
+Nairne's sisters now had with them in Edinburgh the two remaining
+children, Tom and Mary, called "Polly." John is gone but Tom is left,
+says the fond aunt, and to console Nairne she tells of Tom's virtues:
+"Never was father blessed with a more promising son than our little
+Tom, and though I used to dread he was too faultless and too good to
+live, I would now persuade myself he is intended by Providence to
+compensate you for the losses you have sustained." On Tom now centred
+the hopes of the Nairne family.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW FROM POINTE AU PIC UP MURRAY BAY]
+
+The sands of Nairne's own life were running out. As he looked around him
+he could see much to make his heart content. He was never unmindful of
+the singular beauty of the place. "I wish I could send you a landscape
+of this place," he wrote to a friend, John Clark, in 1798; "Was you here
+your pencil might be employed in drawing a beautiful one which this Bay
+affords, as the views and different objects are remarkably various and
+entertaining." This is, no doubt, a mild account of the beauties of a
+very striking scene, but the 18th century had not developed our
+appreciation for nature. Nairne tells of his delight in tramping through
+the woods, and over the mountains, with a gun on his shoulder. The
+increase of settlement, and the burning of the woods, had driven the
+wild animals farther back into the wilderness, but partridges and water
+fowl were still abundant. There was salmon fishing almost at his door
+and "Lake Nairne," the present Grand Lac, had famous trout fishing. The
+thick woods, which at his coming extended all round the bay, were now
+cleared away. Much land had been enclosed and brought under cultivation
+and to do this had been a laborious and expensive task. Now he had
+three farms of his own, each with a hundred acres of arable land and
+with proper buildings. There was also a smaller farm for hay and
+pasture. "I have been employed lately," he writes in 1798, "making paths
+into our woods and marking the trees in straight lines thro' tracts of
+pretty good land in order to encourage the young men to take lots of
+land." He tells how the successive ridges, representing, no doubt,
+different water levels in remote ages, were numbered. In the highest,
+Number 7, the lakes are all situated; the elevated land was generally
+the best but as yet settlement was chiefly in Flats 1, 2, and 3. His
+great aim had always been to get people on the land and he denounced
+obstacles put in their way. "For God's sake let them pitch away, and if
+they have not good titles give them better." The Manor House had become
+a warm and comfortable residence well finished and well furnished. In
+1801 Nairne wrote to his sister, with some natural exultation, that
+where he had at first found an untrodden wilderness were now order,
+neatness, good buildings, a garden and plenty of flowers, fruits and
+humming birds. In the winter one might often say "O, it's cold," but
+means of warming oneself were always available. His wife had proved
+always a useful helper and was indeed a motherly, practical woman,
+beloved by the people. These came to pay their compliments on the first
+day of the year, when there was much drinking of whiskey and eating of
+cakes, all costing a pretty penny. There were 100 young men in the
+parish composing a complete company of militia. The children grew up so
+fast that he could not distinguish the half of them.
+
+On the commercial side also Murray Bay was developing. In 1800 a man
+came through the district buying up wheat at "9 livers a Bushel," but
+since the population was increasing very rapidly, and the people were
+accustomed to eat a great deal of bread, there was not much wheat for
+export. The total exports of all commodities amounted in 1800 to
+L1500:--oil, timber, grain, oxen and a few furs being the chief items.
+Oil was the most important product; it came from the "porpoise" fishery.
+What Nairne calls a porpoise, is really the beluga, a small white whale.
+The fishery is an ancient industry on the St. Lawrence.[15] The creature
+has become timid and is now not readily caught so that the industry
+survives at only a few points. At Malbaie it has wholly ceased; but in
+the summer of 1796 sixty-two porpoises were killed at "Pointe au Pique."
+In the summer of 1800, which was hot and dry, no less than three hundred
+were "catched." Malbaie must have had bustling activity on its shores
+when such numbers of these huge creatures were taken in a single
+season. We can picture the many fires necessary for boiling the blubber.
+The oil of each beluga was worth L5 and the skin L1. Nairne's own share
+in a single year from this source of revenue was L70, but even then the
+industry was declining.
+
+We have Nairne's statement of income in 1798 and it indicates simple
+living at Malbaie. We must remember that in addition, he had received a
+number of bequests which brought in a considerable income and that he
+had sold out of the army for L3000. Perhaps, too, 1798 was a bad year.
+
+"Porpoise" fishery                          L20
+Income from four farms at L20 each           80
+Profits from mills                           20
+                                          -----
+                                           L120
+
+The rent from the land granted to the habitants was scarcely worth
+reckoning, as the people paid nothing until the land was productive, a
+condition that could apparently be postponed indefinitely. Since under
+the seigniorial tenure, the farmers must use the seigneur's grist mill,
+Nairne had his mill in operation and Fraser was building one in 1798.
+Nairne had also one or more mills for sawing timber. "I hope there are a
+great many loggs brought and to be brought to your and my saw mills,"
+Fraser wrote in 1797, but an income of only L20 a year from the mills
+does not indicate any extortionate exercise of seigniorial rights.
+
+Already some of the city people were beginning to find Murray Bay a
+delightful place in which to spend the summer. In 1799 Nairne writes to
+a friend, Richard Dobie, in Montreal, that it is the best place in the
+world for the recovery of strength. "You shall drink the best of wheys
+and breathe the purest sea air in the world and, although luxuries will
+be wanting, our friendship and the best things the place can afford to
+you, I know, will make ample amends:"--a simple standard of living that
+subsequent generations would do well to remember. In 1801 the manor
+house must have been the scene of some gaiety for there and at Malcolm
+Fraser's were half a score of visitors. Christine, Nairne's second
+daughter, who preferred Quebec to the paternal roof, had come home for a
+visit and other visitors were the Hon. G. Taschereau and his son, Mr.
+Usburn, Mr. Masson, Mrs. Langan and Mrs. Bleakley, Fraser's daughters,
+described as "rich ladies from Montreal," the last with three children.
+No doubt they drove and walked, rowed and fished, much as people from
+New York and Baltimore and Boston and Toronto and Montreal do still on
+the same scene, when they are not pursuing golf balls. The coming of
+people with more luxurious habits made improvements necessary and also,
+Nairne says, increased the expense of living--a complaint that
+successive generations have continued with justice to make.
+
+With Tom and Mary Nairne absent at school in Edinburgh, the family at
+Murray Bay during Nairne's last days consisted of but four persons--of
+himself and his wife and the two daughters Magdalen and Christine.
+Christine, a fashionable young lady, disliked Murray Bay as a place of
+residence, tolerated Quebec, but preferred Scotland where she had been
+educated. "Christine does not like to stay at Murray Bay and Madie her
+sister does not like to stay anywhere else," wrote Nairne in 1800. In
+the manner of the eighteenth century he was extremely anxious that his
+children should be "genteel". Christine's Quebec friends pleased him. "I
+saw her dance at a ball at the Lieutenant-Governor's and she seemed at
+no loss for Genteel partners but does not prepare to find one for life.
+I am well pleased with her and do not in the least grudge her so long as
+she is esteemed by the best company in the place." It was not easy to
+find at Quebec proper accommodation for unmarried young women living
+away from home. Nairne writes in August, 1797, that he and Christine
+each paid $1.00 a day in Quebec where they lodged, although they mostly
+dined and drank tea abroad. "The town gentry of Quebec are vastly
+hospitable Civil and well-bred but no such a thing as an invitation to
+stay in any of their houses." At length a Mr. Stewart opened his doors.
+He must, Nairne wrote, be paid tactfully for the accommodation he
+furnishes. Things went better when later Miss Mabane, the daughter of a
+high official of the Government, kept Christine with her at Quebec all
+the winter of 1799-1800; no doubt Christine was pleased when Miss Mabane
+would not allow her to go to Murray Bay even for the summer. Her elder
+sister, Madie, appears to have been hoydenish and somewhat uncongenial
+to a young lady so determined to be "genteel."
+
+In the winter time communication with the outside world was almost
+entirely suspended. In case of emergency it was possible indeed to pass
+on snow shoes by Cap Tourmente, over which there was still no road, and
+so reach Quebec by the north shore. But this was a severe journey to be
+undertaken only for grave cause. Partly frozen over, and often with
+great floes of ice sweeping up and down with the tide, the river was
+dangerous; the south shore, lying so well in sight, was really very
+remote. Yet news passed across the river. On February 12th, 1797,
+Malcolm Fraser, who was on the south shore, found some means of sending
+a letter to Nairne. Anxious to get word in return he planned a signal.
+He said that on March 6th he would go to Kamouraska, just opposite
+Murray Bay, and build a fire. If Nairne answered by one fire Fraser
+would be satisfied that nothing unusual had happened; if two fires were
+made he would understand that there was serious news and would wish as
+soon as possible to learn details. Signalling across the St. Lawrence
+attained a much higher development than is found in Fraser's crude plan.
+Philippe Aubert de Gaspe tells how the people on the south shore could
+read what had happened on the north shore from Cap Tourmente to Malbaie.
+On St. John's eve, December 26th, the season of Christmas festivities,
+there was a general illumination. Looking then across the river to a
+line of blazing fires the news was easily understood. "At Les
+Eboulements eleven adults have died since the autumn, three of whom were
+in one house, that of Dufour. All are well at the Tremblays; but at
+Bonneau's some one is ill. At Belairs a child is dead,"--and so on. The
+key is simple enough. The situation of the fire would indicate the
+family to which it related. A fire lighted and kept burning for a long
+time meant good news; when a fire burned with a half smothered flame it
+meant sickness; the sudden extinguishing of the fire was a sign of
+death; as many times as it was extinguished so many were the deaths; a
+large blaze meant an adult, a small one a child. Before the days of post
+and telegraph these signals were used winter and summer; so great an
+obstacle to communication was the mighty tide of the St. Lawrence.[16]
+
+At all seasons but especially in winter the news that reached Malbaie
+was of a very fragmentary character. With his kin in Scotland Nairne
+exchanged only an annual letter but since each side took time and pains
+to prepare it, the letter told more, probably, than would a year's bulk
+of our hurried epistles. Newspapers were few and dear and only at
+intervals did any come. Books too were scarce. Occasionally Nairne notes
+those that he thought of buying--St. Simon's "Memoirs;" an account of
+the Court of Louis XIV; "A Comparative View of the State and Facultys of
+Man with those of the Animal World;" "Elegant Extracts or Useful and
+Entertaining passages in prose," a companion volume to a similar one in
+poetry, and so on. He writes gratefully, in 1799, to a friend in Quebec,
+who had sent newspapers and sermons, both of which remotely different
+classes of literature had furnished "great entertainment." From Europe
+he is receiving the volumes of the new edition of the Encyclopaedia
+Britannica, still on the shelves at Murray Bay, and is thankful that
+they were not captured by the French. "The older I grow the fonder I am
+of reading and that book is a great resource." Our degenerate age gets
+little "entertainment" out of sermons and usually keeps an encyclopaedia
+strictly for "reference"; obviously Nairne read it.
+
+The old soldier watched and commented upon developments which were the
+fruit of seed he himself had helped to sow. He had fought to win Canada
+for Britain; he had fought to crush the American Revolution. By 1800 he
+sees how great Canada may become and is convinced that yielding
+independence to the United States has not proved very injurious to Great
+Britain. Though, in a short time, the United States was to secure the
+great West by purchasing Louisiana from France, when Nairne died it had
+not done so and in 1800 he could say that the United States "are small
+in comparison of the whole of North America. They are bounded upon all
+sides and will be filled up with people in no very great number of
+years. Our share of North America is yet unknown in its extent.
+Enterprising people in quest of furs travel for years towards the north
+and towards the west through vast countries of good soil uninhabited as
+yet ... [except] for hunting, and watered with innumerable lakes and
+rivers, stored with fish, besides every other convenience for the use of
+man, and certainly destined to be filled with people in some future
+time. We have only [now] heard of one named Mackenzie[17] who is
+reported to have been as far as the Southern Ocean (from Canada) across
+this continent to the West." Long before Canada stretched from the
+Atlantic to the Pacific Nairne was thus dreaming of what we now see.
+
+Of war, then raging, Nairne took a philosophic view. "War may be
+necessary," he writes in 1798, "for some very Populous countrys as any
+crop when too thick is the better of being thinned." But it occurred to
+him that the problem of over-population in Europe might have been solved
+in a less crude manner. "It is strange," he says, "that there should be
+so much of the best part of the globe still unoccupied, where the foot
+of man never trod, and in Europe such destruction of people. It is
+however for some purpose we do not, as yet, comprehend." Those were the
+days when Napoleon Bonaparte's star was rising and when, in defiance of
+England, led by Pitt, he smote state after state which stood in the path
+of his ambition. Nairne's friend and business agent James Ker, an
+Edinburgh banker, was obviously no admirer of Pitt, for he writes on
+July 20th, 1797, of the struggle with revolutionary France which, though
+it was to endure for more than twenty years, had already, he thought,
+lasted too long:
+
+     After a four years' war undertaken for the attainment of objects
+     which were unattainable, in which we have been gradually deserted
+     by every one of our allies except Portugal, ... too weak to leave
+     us; and after a most shameless extravagance and Waste of the public
+     money which all feel severely by the imposition of new and
+     unthought of taxes, we have again sent an ambassador to France to
+     try to procure us Peace.... If our next crop be as bad as our two
+     last ones God knows what will become of us. If it were not for the
+     unexampled Bounty and Charity of the richer classes the Poor must
+     have literally starved, but we have been favoured with a very mild
+     winter.
+
+In 1798 when Napoleon led his forces to Egypt and disappeared from the
+ken of Europe, Nairne hopes devoutly that "he has gone to the Devil, or,
+which is much the same thing, among the Turks and Tartars where he and
+his army may be destroyed." After Nelson succeeded in his attack on the
+French fleet at the Battle of the Nile Nairne rejoices that his country
+is supreme on the sea, "By ruling the waves she will rule the wealth of
+the world not by plunder and conquest but by wisdom and commerce and
+increasing riches everywhere to the happiness of mankind." On March
+20th, 1801, when Austria had just made with France the Peace of
+Luneville, Ker writes again to Nairne:
+
+     We live in the age of wonders, sudden changes and Revolutions. The
+     French have now completely turned the tables on us. They have
+     forced Austria to a disastrous peace and Russia, Prussia, Denmark
+     and Sweden from being our friends and Allies are now uniting with
+     our bitter foes for our destruction, so that from having almost all
+     Europe on our side against France we have now the contest to
+     support _alone_ against her _and almost all Europe_ and nothing
+     prevents the ambitious French Republic from being conquerors of the
+     world but our little Islands and our invincible fleets.
+     Notwithstanding all this we do not seem afraid of invasion and a
+     large fleet under Sir Hide Parker and Lord Nelson is preparing to
+     sail for the Baltic to bring the northern powers to a sense of
+     their duty, and to break in pieces the unnatural coalition with our
+     inveterate foes, the foes of Religion, Property, true Liberty,
+     which but for our strenuous efforts would soon nowhere exist on
+     this Globe.
+
+In spite of what Ker says as to no fear of invasion, such a fear grew
+really very strong in 1801, and, for a brief period, it seemed as if
+Murray Bay might become a refuge for Nairne's kindred in the distressed
+mother land. One of his sisters writes in an undated letter:
+
+     We are much obliged to you for the kind of reception you say we
+     should have met with at Mal Bay had we fled there from the French
+     and I do assure you ... it was for some time a very great comfort
+     and relief to think we had resources to trust to. I for one, I am
+     sure, was almost frightened out of my wits, for a visit from these
+     monsters, even the attempt, tho' they had been subdued after
+     landing, was fearsome. I suspect you might have had more of your
+     friends than your own family to have provided for. The Hepburns I
+     know turned their thoughts toward you and all of us determined to
+     work for our bread the best way we could. But you might have no
+     small addition to your settlers; some of us poor old creatures
+     would have settled heavy enough I fear upon yourself and family. It
+     is a fine place Mal Bay turned by your account. What a deal of
+     respectable company. I am glad of it on your account. A very great
+     piece of good fortune to get Col. Fraser so near; I wonder he does
+     not marry Maidy, but she will think him too old. I think Christine
+     may do a great deal worse than spend the summer if not more at Mal
+     Bay. You are most amazingly indulgent to her. I wish she would make
+     a grateful return by bestowing more of her company on her friends
+     at home in a situation it would appear so pleasant. But she is a
+     good kind-hearted Lassie after all and I suppose when she has got
+     her full swing of Quebec she will be very well pleased to return
+     home.
+
+A legislature now sat at Quebec, the result of the new Constitutional
+Act passed in 1791, and Nairne might have become a member. Murray Bay
+then formed a part of what, with little fitness, had been called by the
+English conquerors the County of Northumberland, no doubt because it lay
+in the far north of Canada as Northumberland lies in the far north of
+England. Two members sat in the legislature for this county. "I never
+had any idea of trying to be one of them," writes Nairne in 1800, "but
+succeeded in procuring that honour for a friend Dr. Fisher, who resides
+in Quebec. He is rich and much flattered with it and is ready on all
+occasions to speak."
+
+To Nairne, contrary to a general impression, the climate of Canada did
+not seem to grow milder as the land was cleared. In any case the blood
+of old age runs less hotly. Formerly the winter had its delights of
+hunting excursions but now, he writes, these are all over. "The passion
+I had formerly for hunting and fishing and wandering through the woods
+is abated.... What with the cold hand of old age my former Winter
+excursions into the woods seem impossible and no more now of fishing
+and hunting which formerly I esteemed so interesting a business." He
+writes again: "My employment is more in the sedentary way than formerly
+and what from calls in my own affairs and calls from people here in
+theirs, accounts to settle, &c., [I have] ... plenty of occupation.
+Besides being a Justice of the Peace and Colonel of Militia ... I employ
+myself without doors in farming, gardening, clearing and manuring land."
+If we may credit the words of Bishop Hubert of Quebec written just at
+this time (in 1794) the new liberties gained by the habitants did not
+make the seigneur's task easier. The good bishop makes sweeping charges
+of general dishonesty; of attempts to defraud the church of her tithe
+and the seigneurs of their dues; of bitter feuds between families and
+innumerable law suits. In such conditions Nairne, as a justice of the
+peace, would have his hands full.
+
+His end was drawing very near. One of his sisters died in 1798. This
+brought sad thoughts but he wrote: "I am very thankful to have found in
+the world connexions who have produced such regards and sympathys. Time
+seems not to be going slowly now-a-days but running fast. I hope we are
+to have other times and to know one another hereafter." "I must make
+haste now," he wrote later, in 1801, "to finish all improvements here
+that may be possible as I will soon be finished myself. Crushed already
+under a load of years of 7 times 10 really I find the last 2 years ...
+heavier than 20 before that time." "The scenes of this life," he had
+written to his old friend and neighbour Malcolm Fraser "are continually
+varying like the elements, sometimes cloudy, sometimes sun shine; [it]
+never lasts long one way or the other till night soon comes and we must
+then lie down and die. Therefore all is vanity and vexation of spirit,
+but God will help us and most certainly some time or other bless and
+reward the friendly honest man."
+
+His last letter to his Scottish relations was intended to be a farewell:
+
+     _Colonel Nairne to his Sister Miss M. Nairne From Murray Bay, 20th
+     April, 1802._
+
+     My Dear Madie,--
+
+     I shall see our friends in the world of spirits probably before any
+     of you; whatever darkness we are in here I have always convinced
+     myself that we shall meet again in a better place hereafter.
+
+     Although I have enjoyed good health till past 70 years of age, the
+     agues of Holland and sometimes excessive fatigue have probably
+     weakened parts of my inward machinery that they are now wore out
+     and must soon finish their functions. I can have no reason to
+     expect to live longer than our father; I am chiefly uneasy that the
+     event may occasion grief to my sisters, yet it ought to be less
+     felt my being at a distance; a poor affair to grieve when it must
+     be all your fates to follow. I am happy that Mr. Ker understands my
+     circumstances and my last will, and that he will be so good and so
+     able to assist in settling it properly; I wish to follow his ideas
+     therein in case of any difficulty, and I am likewise perfectly
+     satisfied with all Mr. Ker's accounts with me. I write this letter
+     to you to go by the first ship in case I should not be able to
+     write later; I do not expect to be able to write to Robie Hepburn
+     nor to Mr. Ker; nothing I can tell now from this country can
+     entertain them; my mind is taken up with nothing but the
+     Friendship, which they know.... So soon as the weather is warmer I
+     intend to go to Quebec in order to obtain the best advice: I shall
+     not personally be so conveniently situated there, as here. I am
+     able yet to go out as far as a bank before the Door and to walk
+     through the rooms; indeed the arrangements and conveniences of this
+     house with the attendance and attention I receive are all in the
+     best manner I can possibly desire; ... it's enough to say that were
+     you here I think you would approve of them. Industry and neatness
+     prevail and everything nesessary [is] foreseen and provided for. No
+     wonder my wife and I agree so well now these thirty-five years as
+     she happens to be equal in every moral attribute which I pretend
+     to.... We are in friendship with everybody, because we do justice
+     impartially and really without vanity have assisted many persons in
+     forming farms and providing for the support of familys; although
+     thereby not in the way of enriching ourselves it affords perhaps as
+     much Satisfaction.
+
+     This place certainly thrives exceedingly; although we may by such
+     exertions be recommending ourselves to the Father of all things,
+     how poor they appear in my eyes having read lately the Newspapers.
+     Most unreasonable are some men in Parliament to find fault with the
+     ministry of Pitt and Dundass who have steered the Vessel of the
+     State so successfully through such dangerous times and threatening
+     appearances. Every Briton I think has reason to be proud of his
+     Country which is raised higher than ever before not only in
+     national Character but in its prospects of Commerce and Wealth by
+     the Peace [the brief Peace of Amiens signed in March, 1802]. What
+     prodigious honour and glory has been acquired and bestowed upon our
+     Army of Egypt, exertions indeed on the most conspicuous theatre of
+     the World and at the most conspicuous period of the world. We
+     formerly thought ourselves sort of heroes by conquering Louisbourg
+     and Quebec but nothing must be compared to that of Egypt.... The
+     French troops have fought much better under their Diacal
+     Republican government than under their King's and our troops not
+     only fight equally well as formerly, but our Generals and Officers
+     are much better writers; never have I read better wrote letters
+     than those describing these renown'd events.
+
+     But pray allow me to sink into poetry to help to fill up this
+     paper; ... let me transcribe a letter in verse which is handed me
+     now by an old Soldier residing near us.[18] He received it from an
+     acquaintance of his who is only a private soldier in the 26th
+     Regiment. That Regt. is now gone home; ... should it be at
+     Edinburgh pray invite James Stevenson to a dram of Whiskey for my
+     sake; though I do not know the man we had served together in the
+     American War and he shows the idea the private men had of me and
+     how a man of a slender education (I believe from Glasgow) can make
+     verses. The Canadians here, I believe, have the same opinion though
+     they are very far from making verses upon any subject whatever; it
+     is much more useful here to cut down trees which they can do with
+     great dexterity.
+
+     Quebec, 25th April, 1800.
+
+        My worthy conty, gude Jock Warren,
+        Thou's still jocose and ay auld farren,
+        Gentle and kind, blythe, frank and free,
+        And always unco' gude to me.
+        And now thou's sold thy country ware
+        And towards hame mean to repair.[19]
+        Accept these lines although but weak
+        And read them for thy Comrade's sake.
+        May plenty still around thee smile
+        And God's great help thy foes beguile,
+        In Wisdom's path be sure to tread
+        And her fair daughter Virtue wed.
+        My compliments and love sincere
+        To all our friends both here and there,
+        But in particular to him
+        That's tall in body, long in limb,
+        Auld faithful Loyal, Johny Nairne,
+        Lang may he count you his ain bairne;
+        By his example still be sway'd;
+        Be his good precepts still obeyed;
+        Revere this good and worthy man
+        And always do the best you can.
+        This is my wish and expectation,
+        God granting you and me salvation.
+        We ance were young but now we're auld,
+        Oour blood from heat commences cauld,
+        A drop of whiskey warms the whole,
+        Renews the body, cheers the soul;
+        Observing still due moderation,
+        In order to prevent vexation,
+        Proceeding on with cautious care
+        Till Death with his grim face appear;
+        Then with a conscience, just and true
+        See Heaven's Glory, in your View.
+
+     My neighbour, Mr. Fraser, tells me that by my looks and speaking he
+     cannot think me so ill as imagined. You will think the same by my
+     writing the above. My distemper is owing to Gravelly Ulcers and it
+     is a great chance at my time of life to recover, so [we] should be
+     prepared for the worst.
+
+     It is a satisfaction to me to have been able to write this letter,
+     such as it is. My thoughts are every day and every night with my
+     sisters and [I] figure myself frequently at your fireside. Remember
+     I am not to write any more unless I get a great deal better. [I]
+     shall refer you to Christine to correspond and to tell you all you
+     would wish to know from this country. And now I have nothing but
+     Compts. and love to send to all my friends--to Robie Hepburn as my
+     oldest and nearest my heart--my blessings to his family, as to the
+     Kers and Congaltons. And once more to Anny you and Mary and Mrs.
+     Ker and my Polly and Tom. God bless you all. I am truly my dear
+     Madie with much affection,
+
+     Yours for aye,
+
+     JOHN NAIRNE.
+
+Nairne was not mistaken in his view that the end was near. He writes
+about this time to his physician at Quebec (there was no practitioner at
+Murray Bay) describing his symptoms and ends: "Now, dear Doctor, I dare
+say you think some apologies necessary for my troubling you so
+particularly with the complaints of an old man of 71, as his inward
+machinery is probably wore out and irreparable." In a last vain hope
+they took him to Quebec for medical care. But the machinery was, indeed,
+"wore out," and at Quebec, on July 14th, 1802, he closed his eyes on a
+world which, though it brought him labour and sorrow, he thought to be
+very good.
+
+Among his own letters is preserved the printed invitation to his
+funeral:
+
+     Quebec, _Wednesday, 14th July, 1802._
+
+     Sir,--
+
+     The favour of your company is requested to attend the Funeral of
+     the late Colonel Nairne, from No. 1 Grison Street, on Cape Diamond,
+     to the place of interment, on Friday next at one o'clock in the
+     afternoon.
+
+All that was most worthy in Quebec attended to do honour to his memory.
+He was buried in the Protestant cemetery; long after his body was
+removed to Mount Hermon Cemetery, to lie beside his son and
+grandson--the last of his race.
+
+Nairne played his part with high purpose and integrity. Among his papers
+at Murray Bay is a prayer, intended apparently for daily use, in which
+he asks that he may be vigilant in conduct and immovable in all good
+purposes; that he may show courage in danger, patience in adversity,
+humility in prosperity. He asks, too, to be made sensible "how little is
+this world, how great [are] thy Heavens, and how long will be thy
+blessed eternity." It is the prayer of a strong soul facing humbly and
+reverently the tasks of life.[20] He would have wished to found a
+community English speaking and Protestant. But the forces of nature were
+against him. The few English speaking people who came in (and they were
+but a few scattered individuals) for the most part married French
+wives. The children held the faith and spoke the tongue which they
+learned at their mothers' knees. It was the course of nature, and always
+we are foolish to quarrel with nature. A granite monument marks the
+resting place where the good old man sleeps in the cemetery at Quebec,
+but some memorial might well stand at Murray Bay, that those who look
+out upon the majestic river, the blue mountains, the smiling valley
+should have before them a reminder of the "friendly, honest man" who, a
+century and a half ago, began to win their heritage from the
+wilderness.[21]
+
+[Footnote 13: It may be convenient to state at once the dates of the
+births and deaths of each of these children:
+
+Magdalen (Madie) (Mrs. McNicol)  born 1767  died 1839.
+Christine Nairne                   "  1774    "  1817.
+John Nairne                        "  1777    "  1799.
+Mary (Polly) Nairne                "  1782    "  1821.
+Thomas Nairne                      "  1787    "  1813.
+]
+
+[Footnote 14: See Appendix D., p. 277., for a formal memorandum drawn up
+by Nairne for his son's guidance.]
+
+[Footnote 15: See Appendix E., p. 279. "The 'Porpoise' (Beluga or White
+Whale) Fishery on the St. Lawrence."]
+
+[Footnote 16: "Les Anciens Canadiens," Chapter IV.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Sir Alexander Mackenzie who accomplished in 1793 what was
+then the astonishing feat of crossing the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
+Ocean and whose book, "Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence,
+through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific
+Oceans," first published in 1801, attracted general attention, including
+even that of Napoleon Bonaparte.]
+
+[Footnote 18: John Warren, the ancestor of the numerous family at Murray
+Bay of that name.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Warren, Nairne's neighbour, had been visiting Quebec
+apparently for business reasons.]
+
+[Footnote 20: See Appendix F., p. 286, for this Prayer of Colonel
+Nairne.]
+
+[Footnote 21: The inscription to be placed on Nairne's tomb was long a
+subject of debate in the family. Two drafts remain at Murray Bay, both
+copious in length, and neither like the inscription now to be found at
+Mount Hermon Cemetery. (See p. 221.) In the taste of the time
+inscriptions were expected to give a full account of the career of the
+dead man. One of these inscriptions speaks of Nairne's "enjoying as a
+reward of his services a gift of Land on the River St. Lawrence. He had
+alike the merit and the happiness of converting a wild and uninhabited
+desert into a flourishing colony of above 1000 inhabitants, who regarded
+him as their Tender Friend and Patriarch. He died honoured with the
+esteem of all who knew him." The other inscription mentions what,
+otherwise, we should not have known, that Nairne received a wound on the
+Plains of Abraham. It goes on in verse:
+
+    "Though 'gainst the Foe a dauntless Front he reared,
+    Ne'er from his lips was aught assuming heard;
+    Modest, though brave; though firm, in manners mild,
+    Strong in resolve, though guileless as a child;
+    To honor true, in probity correct;
+    To falsehood [stern] and urgent to detect;
+    To party strange, to calumny a foe;
+    The good Samaritan to sons of woe;
+    At a late hour he heard the fatal call,
+    Obeyed and died, wept and deplored by all."
+]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THOMAS NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY
+
+     His Education in Scotland.--His winning character.--He enters the
+     army.--Malcolm Fraser's counsels to a young soldier.--Thomas
+     Nairne's life at Gibraltar.--His desire to retire from the
+     army.--His return to Canada in 1810-11.--His life at Quebec.--His
+     summer at Murray Bay, 1811.--His resolve to remain in the
+     army.--Beginning of the War of 1812.--Captain Nairne on Lake
+     Ontario.--Quebec Society and the proposed flight from danger to
+     Murray Bay.--Anxiety at Murray Bay.--The progress of the War.--An
+     American attack on Kingston.--Captain Nairne on the Niagara
+     frontier.--Naval War on Lake Ontario.--Nairne's description of a
+     naval engagement.--Sense of impending disaster at Murray Bay.--The
+     American advance on Montreal by the St. Lawrence.--Nairne's
+     regiment a part of the opposing British force.--The Battle of
+     Crysler's Farm.--Nairne's death.--His body taken to Quebec.--The
+     grief of the family at Murray Bay.--The funeral.
+
+
+At his father's death Thomas Nairne was the only surviving son. In 1791
+the father had written of this boy, born in 1787 and thus only four
+years old: "Tom continues very stout but not easy to manage and [I] am
+afraid it will be difficult to separate [him] from his mother. He does
+not speak a word of English; neither do your sisters Mary (now called
+Polly) or Anny speak any other language than French; but I intend to
+send them all to Quebec next summer, where it's to be hoped they will
+soon learn to understand a little English." So to Quebec Tom was sent to
+begin his education. By 1798, when only eleven years old, he had gone to
+the relatives in Scotland and Nairne's friend, Ker, writes of him: "I
+think Tommie one of the sweetest tempered fine boys I ever saw and he
+will, I doubt not, be the comfort and delight of you all." Polly was
+there too--"a very good girl ... of great use to her Aunts to whom she
+pays every attention." Tom, like his brother John, was carefully
+instructed by his father. He must look after himself, dress, care for
+his clothes, and keep clean, without troubling others. Especially must
+he try to think clearly and speak distinctly--truly a sound beginning of
+education. His brother's death in 1799 made him an important person, the
+pride of his house. "There are many Tams now in this parish," wrote his
+father in 1801, "even a part of it is named St. Thomas, all in
+compliment to our Tom." At the time of his father's death in 1802, a boy
+of fifteen, Tom was attending the Edinburgh High School. Before me lies
+a coverless account book of octavo size in which are written by some
+careful person, in clear round-hand, recipes, scraps of poetry, problems
+in arithmetic and geometry, and among other things, "Tom's Expenses,
+1796." A quarter at the High School costs 10/6, "Lattin books," 4/-,
+school money is 3/-, a ferret 3d., and so on. His sister Polly's
+expenses are entered in the same book and that young lady's outlay was
+more formidable. Items for the milliner such as "making up a Bonnet.
+3/6," (young ladies still wore bonnets) are frequent. Miss Polly spent
+6/- on ear-rings. Once when she took a "Shaise" it cost her 2/-, while
+"Chair Hire" is sometimes 1/6 and sometimes reduced to the modest
+proportions of 9d. No doubt for her health's sake she bought for 1/- a
+"Sacred Tincture" which, we may hope, did her good.
+
+Thomas Nairne was an attractive boy. He lived with his father's executor
+and friend, James Ker, an Edinburgh banker, a wise, prudent, far-seeing,
+man. Mr. Ker was married to Colonel Nairne's niece and he received Tom
+as his own child. The boy was the inseparable companion of Ker's son
+Alick. Tom won praises on all sides. An Aunt wrote seriously that she
+had feared he was too good to live; and she comforted Nairne's grief at
+his son John's death by the thought of what Tom will be to him. He is "a
+happy chearful pleased little fellow always quiet at home"--but also
+"happy and at home wherever he goes." So thoughtful, she adds, is he
+that, entirely on his own motion, he deems it proper to write to his
+mother; one of these letters is before me--beautifully written in a
+large but well-formed schoolboy hand. "A very promising sweet young
+man," was the renewed judgment of his business-like guardian upon Tom
+in 1803, when he was a boy of only sixteen. By that time, it was thought
+that Tom had exhausted the advantages of the Edinburgh High School. The
+Edinburgh accent of the day did not suit the taste of his fastidious
+guardian, who hoped that in an English school a better manner of speech
+might be acquired. Tom's cousin and companion, Alick Ker, a boy a few
+years older, was going to school at Durham and thither also went Tom.
+The lads "are the greatest friends in the world," wrote his watchful
+aunt; "Alick does not know how to exist without Tom but Tom is more
+independent of Alick, for he is not so shy." In an aunt's, perhaps
+partial, view Tom was quicker and showed more application than Alick.
+"Tom advances with great deliberation in his height," she writes, which
+was very convenient, for, since Alick was older, Tom came in for Alick's
+out-grown clothes and this saved expense.
+
+When the boy's school days were drawing to an end his future course was
+the topic of much discussion. Tom's father had wished him to study law,
+though not to practice it: in Canada, he thought, there was no lucrative
+opening for any one trained in the law unless he was made a judge. Old
+Malcolm Fraser, Tom's adviser after his father's death, would have had
+him, for safety's sake, adopt a civilian life; he was the last male of
+his house and therefore ought not to be exposed to a soldier's dangers.
+Tom's Edinburgh friends wished him to become a Writer to the Signet or,
+at any rate, to learn something about business since, as a landed
+proprietor, he must be a man of affairs. But the youth took the matter
+in his own hands. For his father's character and career he had always a
+great reverence; soldier's blood was in his veins, and nature had her
+way. Tom became a soldier and, when the school days are ended, we find
+the boy, not yet eighteen, Lieutenant in the 10th Regiment of Foot.
+Fraser wrote to Tom protesting against what he had done and from Maldon
+Barracks, in Essex, on April 5th, 1805, Tom answers his godfather's
+objections. Perhaps to add solemnity to his argument the old man had
+assumed the tone of a valetudinarian and Tom replies: "I would fain hope
+you had no reason for saying you would soon follow my dear Father. I
+hope God will spare you to us since he has thought proper to take my
+Father to Himself. Your loss would be irreparable, I having no other
+person to protect my mother and sisters as I have chosen a line of life
+in which I may never have the fortune of being near them." In spite of
+Fraser's appeal, Tom's resolution to remain in the army was unshaken.
+
+It was an amazing era in Europe and well may Fraser have feared for the
+young Lieutenant's safety. While the boy was writing, Napoleon
+Bonaparte, with the lustre fresh upon him of a recent gorgeous
+coronation at Paris as Emperor of the French, was gathering at Boulogne
+a great army and hundreds of small boats with which this army might, he
+hoped, be thrown across into England within twenty-four hours. That
+country was very nervous but, for some reason, Tom's regiment, instead
+of being kept at home to meet the invader, was sent to Gibraltar. Here
+he remained inactive while world-shaking events were happening, while
+Trafalgar and Austerlitz and Jena were fought, and Pitt stricken with
+"the noblest of all sorrows," grief for the seeming ruin of his country,
+told those about him to "roll up the map of Europe," and died
+heartbroken. Not unnaturally at such a time Gibraltar seemed dull; a
+miserable place, Tom thought, a prison on a large scale. His friends
+wrote him letters containing an abundance of good advice, all of which
+he took with becoming modesty. A letter from Fraser of this character is
+still excellent reading; his counsels to the young soldier have added
+weight when we remember that the author was with Wolfe at Louisbourg and
+Quebec and now, nearly fifty years later, was still active in the
+militia forces of Canada.
+
+     _Malcolm Fraser to Lieut. Thomas Nairne_
+
+     _From Murray Bay, 7th October, 1805._
+
+     My Dear Godson,--
+
+     I had the very great pleasure of receiving yours of the 5th April
+     last at this place on the 15th September and as your sister Miss
+     Christine has wrote you I must refer you to her for the news of
+     Murray Bay. She left this for Quebec a few days ago and every thing
+     continues to go well here and I hope will do so. Your mother
+     improves your estate daily and if she lives ten years I am
+     convinced that she will make it worth double what it was ten years
+     ago and if after a peace, when I hope you will have a company, you
+     can get exchanged into a Regiment serving in this Country without
+     losing rank, you will by that means have an opportunity of
+     examining your own affairs here and it will give the greatest
+     pleasure to your mother and other relations and friends within your
+     native country, and particularly to me, should I happen to live so
+     long. Christine has I suppose wrote that you are now an uncle, your
+     sister Madie having been delivered of a fine boy about two months
+     ago, and I have the pleasure to tell you that she and her husband
+     seem to be very happy and, tho' I did not at first approve of the
+     match, that I am now quite reconciled to it as are all her friends
+     here, as well as those in Scotland as far as I can learn.
+
+     Now as to yourself: tho' I had some objections to your going into
+     the army so very young, yet now that you have become a soldier, I
+     hope you will continue to follow the military life with ardour and
+     Emulation as far as lays in your power and that you will endeavour
+     to employ your spare time in acquiring the various accomplishments
+     necessary to become a good officer. I would by no means advise you
+     to avoid such innocent pleasures and amusements as are suitable to
+     your age and rank. But I pray you beware of being led astray or
+     going into any excess. I am very glad to find that the army is now
+     in general much less addicted to (what was falsely called) the
+     pleasures of the bottle than in former times, but you may still
+     meet with temptations in that way which I hope you'll guard
+     against. Try to resemble your late worthy father in temperance and
+     moderation as well as in punctuality and exactness in doing your
+     duty with strict subordination to your superiors, particularly to
+     the commanding officer of your corps, as it is by his
+     recommendation, commonly, that those under his immediate command
+     may expect promotion. You must by all means avoid getting into any
+     parties or factions against him, which I have known sometimes to
+     have unfortunately happened to others; but there can be hardly
+     anything more detrimental to the service as well as dishonourable
+     to the corps wherein it takes place. I would also recommend to you
+     ..., in case you are engaged in any action, to beware of passing
+     judgment on the conduct of your Commanders, till at least you are
+     of an age and have acquired experience to entitle you to give your
+     opinion, as it is very common for a young man to be mistaken. You
+     must also avoid any dispute or difference with your brother
+     officers, for tho' there are unhappily some cases where a gentleman
+     _must_ vindicate his honour yet where I have known such things
+     happen they might have been prevented _with honour_ if the parties
+     had not allowed their passions to get the better of their reason;
+     and you must remember there is never honour to be acquired by being
+     quarrelsome, but the reverse, and that your life ought now to be
+     devoted to the service of your King and country. I know you will
+     not be sparing of it when occasion requires.
+
+     I would also recommend to you to read useful books when you have
+     time and to acquire a competent knowledge of History, both Ancient
+     and Modern, especially that of the country in whose service you
+     are engaged, as also such books as treat of your profession; and to
+     pay particular attention to the lives and actions of those who have
+     distinguished themselves in its service, who you will find to have
+     been in general as remarkable for their moral, as for their
+     military characters; and I hope you will endeavour to imitate them
+     and, tho' you may not acquire the rank, you must remember that you
+     cannot become a _good general_ or even a good officer without first
+     acquiring a competent knowledge of your profession. For this
+     purpose (tho' I never had any proper knowledge of those matters
+     myself yet I am sensible of my deficiency) I would have you study
+     and read such books as treat of fortification and encampments; and
+     as you are still very young I imagine you may soon acquire a
+     competent knowledge by such reading, suitable to avail yourself of
+     it on any emergency.
+
+     I must now recommend you to keep those who may be under your
+     command in that degree of subordination and obedience which the
+     service requires. But you must never forget that your inferiors,
+     even the Private Man who serves in the ranks, is your fellow
+     soldier and fellow-man, and that you are bound to show him every
+     attention and humanity in your power. This was one of the many good
+     qualities for which your father was remarkable, for which he was
+     beloved by all ranks; and I hope you will imitate him. I must now
+     conclude by recommending to you to let me hear from you once a
+     year, at least, or oftener if an opportunity offers. Nothing can
+     give more pleasure than to hear good accounts of you to
+
+     Your affectionate godfather,
+
+     MALCOLM FFRASER.
+
+     In short you must never forget that you may at times become
+     responsible for the lives and honour of those under your command as
+     well as for your own, and, it may even happen, for that of your
+     King and Country, in some degree, and that you are to act
+     accordingly. All this with more and much better you may read or
+     hear from others; but I flatter myself that you will not think the
+     less of it as coming from _me_.
+
+It must be admitted that the soldier's ideal in that age for the British
+army was as high as our own. We are accustomed to think that a hundred
+years ago drunkenness was hardly accounted a vice. Perhaps it was not in
+civil life, but in the army, in young Nairne's time, sobriety was the
+rule. Writing on May 20th, 1807, he says that few in the army resort to
+drink, as a pleasure, even at Gibraltar, where wine is cheap and
+plentiful; the allowance in the regiment after dinner is but one-third
+of a bottle, and only now and then when there are guests is it usual to
+depart from this allowance. The deadly dullness and idleness of
+Gibraltar were its chief defects, the young officer thought.
+
+There had been futile talk of peace. On August 13th, 1806, Ker wrote to
+Murray Bay from Edinburgh: "We expect to hear of Peace between this
+country and France. The Earl of Lauderdale has been sent to Paris to
+treat. But what sort of peace can we make with Bona Parte?" What sort
+indeed? Peace was not to come during Tom Nairne's lifetime. He was
+getting ready meanwhile for an enlarged career. At Gibraltar he pressed
+his guardian to purchase him a captaincy. Those were the bad old days
+when promotion in the army went largely by purchase and Tom had been
+Lieutenant for little more than a year when, at a cost of L1,000, Ker
+bought for him the desired rank; he attained to this dignity at the age
+of nineteen. The purchase strained his resources severely but his family
+got some comfort out of the thought that he was advancing. There was an
+excellent library at Gibraltar and he had good opportunities for
+self-improvement of which he promised to avail himself. But the promise
+was hardly realized. At any rate Tom gave a very poor account of his own
+doings for, after he had returned to England, he wrote to his mother
+(from Chelmsford Barracks on March 19th, 1808) a not very flattering
+account of himself at Gibraltar:
+
+     Only figure to yourself a rock, about two miles and a half in
+     length and scarcely the fifth part of that in breadth, and then
+     most likely you will not be so much astonished at my making the
+     above comparison [of Gibraltar to a prison], from which you may
+     wisely suppose that those unfortunate beings who had the misfortune
+     of being shut up in it led a most inactive and stupid life....
+     However, to give the Devil his due, I must not omit to observe that
+     it contained a most excellent Library, by which means officers
+     might improve themselves greatly and spend their leisure hours to
+     their credit, provided they were desirous of doing so; particularly
+     as nothing existed in that place to take off their attention from
+     study; and I make no doubt but some young men had the sense to
+     profit by that favourable opportunity. At the same time [I] am
+     extremely sorry to inform you your promising son did not, in any
+     shape whatever, and am much concerned to add that he spent a very
+     idle life whilst there, doing nothing else the live-long day than
+     riding or lounging; which I presume you will think was a complete
+     disgrace to any man of a liberal education, in which I perfectly
+     agree with you.... I sincerely hope and trust that he [your son]
+     will mend as he becomes older and wiser.
+
+Tom confesses himself at this time "a complete idle, good for nothing
+fellow," but he disarms his mother's reproaches when he adds that he is
+chiefly occupied in thinking of her and of his large estate in Canada
+where he longs to be. It had for him a new attraction, since his cousin
+Alick Ker was just going out to Canada, a Captain on the staff of Sir
+James Craig, the new Governor, who was related to the Kers. For the time
+Tom's family was content that he should be at Gibraltar, where he was
+safe, and where, too, as Ker prudently says, "he lives cheaper than he
+could in England, has a genteel [how the age loved that word!] society
+and the use of a large Library." He rode on the sandy beach; sometimes,
+until the coming of the French troops, the British officers were allowed
+to ride into Spain.
+
+These diversions all came to an end on August 26th, 1807, when Tom
+turned his back on Gibraltar for good. Incredible as it may now seem,
+the voyage to England took nearly a month; he arrived on the 24th of
+September. The young man had been turning over seriously his future
+prospects. In a letter to his mother he makes some enquiry about his
+own probable income from his estate. While protesting that he is himself
+"a Devilish ugly fellow" he has some thought of getting his mother to
+choose a "rib" for him and, presumptuous as it may seem, she must be
+handsome. He was thinking now of a civilian career. At Gibraltar he had
+found that he was short-sighted, and long sight seemed a necessity to a
+soldier. But Fraser, to whom he poured out his woe, answered that
+short-sightedness need not interfere with his efficiency; Colonel Nairne
+had been short-sighted and yet, withal, a successful officer; the
+question of sight would matter only if he was in command, in face of the
+enemy, and, even then, he could get assistance. Fraser advised him to
+stay in the army until he attained the rank of a field officer, when he
+might retire on half pay to his estate at Murray Bay, "extensive but not
+valuable in proportion." In truth Tom, tired of the army, was home-sick.
+He says to Fraser that he is "feeling an indescribable degree of anxiety
+to see my dearest mother, sisters, and yourself, not forgetting to
+include my estate, where I often figure myself, strutting about like
+unto a mighty Bashaw; which peaceful idea I sincerely hope will be
+realized, some day or other, if it pleases God to spare me so long; ...
+my only desire is now that blessed time may be near at hand or even that
+I could afford to set out to Murray Bay without any further delay.
+However it is proper to drown that wish, for the present, amongst the
+noise of arms, as the whole world is up against us, and my assistance,
+though little enough, God knows, may be of some use. At all events it
+would be tasting the sweets of this life before I had ever felt the
+miseries of it." He ends by asking that nothing of which he is possessed
+may be spared "towards making Alick Ker pass a pleasant time in Canada."
+
+The fear which the old aunt had ingenuously expressed that Tom might
+prove too good to live was happily belied, for he appears to have been a
+sufficiently idle young fellow, though, as his watchful guardian wrote,
+"a good economist"; the same guardian thought this extremely opportune,
+since "Bona Parte," with all Europe under his heel, was making it lively
+for the fortunate islands, and forcing them to levy a tax of 10% on
+incomes. "This tax," writes the indignant banker, "is one of the many
+blessed fruits of the French Revolution, and of the horrible tyranny and
+perfidy of their rascally Emperor."
+
+Not long did Tom remain in England. Soon he was off with his regiment to
+Sicily, at this period garrisoned by British troops, and saved by a
+strip of inviolate sea from the grasp of the master of Italy. The
+sojourn in Sicily must have been dull. He was stationed at Syracuse, but
+his school training had not gone deep enough to interest him in
+Thucydides's marvellous story of the siege of that place or in the
+antiquities of Sicily. The chief surviving record of his sojourn in
+Sicily is an account from his washerwoman, "Mrs. De Lass," dated at
+Syracuse the 8th of March, 1809. His distaste for the army was now
+complete. His sister Polly had ended her school days and, by a fortunate
+circumstance, had gone out to Canada "under the protection of Sir
+William Johnstone's lady" and to Canada Tom was himself resolved to go.
+Early in 1810, he was back in Edinburgh, taking a few weeks' holiday
+with the Kers, resolved to go on half pay at once, if possible, or,
+failing this, to sell out, and after a delay of fourteen or fifteen
+months, to go home to Murray Bay. The intervening time he intended to
+spend in the study of farming; he had almost completed a plan for going
+into Berwickshire to reside with a farmer and thus equip himself as a
+land owner. His friends thought him changeable. "The Captain," wrote Ker
+on the 30th of March, 1810, "is a sweet tempered good young man but he
+wants steadiness.... I fear that after trying to be a farmer at Murray
+Bay he may tire and want to return to the army." So serious was Tom
+about his future bucolic life that he wrote to his sister Christine, as
+he had written before to his mother, to ask whether she did not think he
+should look round for a wife; such a companion would be necessary, he
+thought, if he settled down as a farmer in Canada. We can imagine that
+the proposition, from a youth of twenty-three, caused some dismay among
+the occupants of the Manor House at Murray Bay; but Tom was soon
+professing himself something of a woman hater and he never married.
+
+His return to Murray Bay followed quickly. By a fortunate, or perhaps,
+in view of the tragic fate awaiting poor Tom, unfortunate, chance,
+instead of going on half-pay, he was able to exchange from the 10th
+Regiment of Foot to the Newfoundland Regiment. The chief reason for the
+exchange was that the Newfoundland Regiment was ordered to Canada, where
+Tom could get leave of absence to pay a long visit to Murray Bay and
+learn how its life would suit him. So, in the autumn of 1810, the young
+man was in Canada, which he had not seen since childhood. To Murray Bay
+he soon paid a flying visit; the longer leave of absence would come
+later. His competent, busy, prudent and affectionate old mother welcomed
+him with open arms. He had thought of himself as a young Bashaw
+strutting round among the people of his seigniory. No doubt they were
+much interested to see the young Captain; but his duties soon called him
+back to Quebec, from which place on December 3rd, 1810, he writes to his
+mother:
+
+     I have this moment finished drinking tea, all alone.... You have
+     totally spoiled my relish for anything except for Murray Bay; my
+     notions of things in general appear to be entirely changed. Murray
+     Bay while viewed only in perspective afforded me a sort of pleasing
+     reflection; but now that I have a nearer view and enjoyed its
+     comforts my ideas have experienced a complete revolution. So you
+     see what your society and most kind loving treatment have effected.
+     You may therefore rest assured that no stone will be left unturned
+     to try to get back in order that we may remain together in this
+     world as long as it may please the Almighty to permit us. On my
+     arrival here at 2 o'clock p.m. I proceeded to the Upper Town in
+     order to look out for a bed, concerning the getting of which I had
+     entertained my doubts being, _tout ensemble_, a queer figure,
+     having on my covered handkerchief, thick great coat, Canadian
+     boots, and round hat; in short at the first essay I was refused by
+     a "No room in the house, Sir," a common reply given to those whose
+     unfortunate appearance happens not exactly to please the harsh and
+     scrutinizing eye of the lord of the mansion. I then turned my
+     frozen steps towards this house of hospitality where after
+     explaining _mon besoin_ to the waiter he scrupulously and
+     critically eyed me from top to toe, from head to foot, then turned
+     on his heel to go to his master and report accordingly. During his
+     absence I commenced a serious inspection of self to find if
+     possible what had attracted his attention so pointedly towards my
+     toes, when I observed the cause to be the silver chain of my
+     over-alls peeping out from under my great-coat; which, no doubt,
+     was the reason of having received a favourable answer; for on his
+     re-entrance he asked me to sit down and I finally engaged a room.
+
+On January 9th, 1811, Tom wrote to say that a man had arrived from
+Murray Bay but without letters:
+
+     "What the Devil has come over those sisters of mine? Pray are they
+     still behind the stove patching their old stockings? No time
+     forsooth--Rediculous--Could not the lazy wretches have only wrote
+     me the scratch of a pen merely to wish me a good New Year? Mr.
+     McCord to be sure mumbles something about time; it is highly
+     diverting to have country lasses talk about want of time,
+     particularly those I am now speaking of, unless they have greatly
+     altered for the better since I saw them last, and turned their
+     hands to cow-keeping, tending of poultry, or something of that
+     description; but I'll be bound for it they still employ themselves
+     with nothing else except perching behind the stove, growling, and
+     driving carriols."
+
+He exhorts his sisters to take long walks in the fine cold weather. Then
+he dips into politics. There is to be an election at Murray Bay for the
+county of Northumberland and Mr. Bouchette, a Canadian, had asked for
+the interest of Tom as seigneur. He regrets that he cannot himself offer
+to stand since he is unsettled in plans, "and totally unacquainted with
+the language of the country"; a strange comment on the fact that in
+early youth he had known only French. The habitant had recently secured
+the right to vote but already pleased himself in exercising it. Though,
+as Tom says, "Dr. La Terriere of the adjacent seigniory of Les
+Eboulements, the Cures, and the Devil knows who" all wished Bouchette
+elected and Tom was himself anxious that a habitant should not be
+chosen, Bouchette failed and a habitant was sent to Quebec to represent
+the district in the Legislature.
+
+Tom's letters written during the winter of 1810-1811 are full of the
+gossip and events of the time in Quebec. He is now obviously keen for
+self-improvement, and, in the manner of his father, for the improvement
+of others also; while congratulating Polly on the better style of her
+letters which are now "sprightly", he corrects her spelling. Among other
+things he is trying to complete a proper inscription for his father's
+tomb. He sends for the title deeds of his property in order that he may
+do homage to the governor Sir James Craig, and shows a lively interest
+in the management of his estate. His father's old friend, Colonel
+Fraser, was visiting Quebec which, more than fifty years earlier, he had
+helped to win for Britain but where now, it is somewhat sad to think, he
+has, as Tom says, very few acquaintances. So the young Captain spends
+two or three hours daily with the Colonel and finds that he has many
+interesting subjects to talk with him about. He drives with him into the
+country. He enquires about a house in Quebec which his mother had some
+thought of buying and talks of a trip to Montreal to buy a horse to send
+to Murray Bay. In the letters home Christine, "Rusty" is the special
+object of his teasing. She has been accustomed to spend the winters at
+Quebec, but is now at Murray Bay, and he asks how she likes the dull
+country at this season. "She never says anything about it, which is in
+her favour.... I trust that through the means of Picquet you contrive to
+keep her rusty dollars moving." Tom's absence from Murray Bay was soon
+to end. On March, 23rd, 1811, he wrote joyously that he has got leave of
+absence for six months, and is coming "to my own dear Murray Bay."
+Christine had been dangerously ill and he is naturally anxious to be at
+home.
+
+So behold the young seigneur disporting himself at Murray Bay in the
+spring of 1811. Old Malcolm Fraser, at the manor of Mount Murray just
+across the bay, kept a watchful eye on the godson who, he had begun to
+fear, was not proving wholly satisfactory. The cause of Fraser's
+misgiving is not clear but he lectured Tom with tactful insight. Of his
+own career the young officer was now beginning to take a new view.
+During the long holiday at Murray Bay he had time to taste its pleasures
+and to learn its chief interests. He went out fishing and shooting; he
+sailed and rowed on the river; he occupied himself in the daily business
+of the seigniory, for which his competent mother had so long cared; she
+was now building a mill which would probably add to Tom's revenues. He
+made friends with the cure Mr. Le Courtois. This gentleman, a French
+emigre, who found a refuge in Canada, had thrown himself with great
+devotion into the rough life of a missionary among the scattered
+peoples, Canadians and Indians alike, of his remote parish. He was a man
+of culture and remained always a valued counsellor of the Protestant
+family in the Manor House.[22] But, in spite of all the interests and
+friendships at Murray Bay, Tom soon found that the little community
+hardly needed him. Every thing was well looked after, prosperous and
+promising. He would be only a fifth wheel to the coach and, before long,
+he had made up his mind that he had better stick to his military career.
+
+Without doubt Tom was a young man of winning character. Malcolm Fraser,
+having studied him and lectured him, reconsidered his unfavourable
+estimate, and wrote to Ker on the 10th of October, 1811: "I think him
+incapable of any immoral or mean action; ... he seems to hearken to the
+lectures of his old Godfather tho' not perhaps always delivered in the
+most delicate Style." To his mother he was a tender son, and for his
+father's memory he showed a filial reverence. One of his first acts on
+arriving in Canada had been to arrange for the erection in Quebec of a
+proper monument in his memory--something that others had long talked
+about and which Tom brought to completion, but which has, alas, long
+since disappeared. Tom was in truth a man of action, and to action in
+the larger world he now turned. Towards the end of September, 1811, at
+the time when, to-day, Murray Bay's summer sojourners turn reluctantly
+homeward from the crisp autumn air and from the mountain sides beginning
+to show the season's glowing tints, Captain Nairne set out from the
+Manor House to join his regiment at Quebec. He had in mind a plan to go
+back to Europe and to get to Spain or Portugal for a share in the
+Peninsular War then raging. Fraser, now in his 79th year, writes on
+October 10th, 1811, his advice that the young man "should continue on
+full pay till he attains the rank of Major, by brevet or otherwise, and
+then, if he chooses, he may exchange and retire on the half of whatever
+full pay he holds at the time, and as soon as such exchange can be
+accomplished with decency and propriety." War with the United States was
+now impending, hardly a fitting time for a young man to withdraw from
+the army, and Fraser points out that "in the present situation of public
+affairs and at his age and fitness for service" Tom's retirement would
+be hardly decent. "Next to my own nearest connections," he continues,
+"my chief attention will be paid to Captain Nairne and the other
+connections of his late Father with whom I had the happiness to live in
+Friendship and intimacy from our first meeting (1757) till his Decease
+(1802) and I trust we shall meet again in a future state."
+
+The young man thus returned to his military duties with his old friend's
+benediction and restored confidence. But to the family the plan for a
+military career was a sore disappointment. His sister Christine, its
+woman of the world, and the one most in touch with the Canadian society
+of the time, was keen that Tom should live at Murray Bay. To her
+entreaties he answers on October 6th, 1811, that there is no earthly use
+for him at Murray Bay where everything is so well looked after that his
+presence would do more harm than good. Time would hang heavy on his
+hands if he were always employed in fishing, shooting and navigating the
+river. It is better, he says, that he should continue in his present
+position and he intends to withdraw his application for half pay. When
+Christine returns to the charge and urges that Murray Bay is not to be
+despised the young man retorts that he never said it was and answers her
+with some dignity:
+
+     It will ill become me to despise the favourite residence of a
+     person for whom I have at all times testified the greatest love
+     esteem and respect. Indeed I think my behaviour hitherto might have
+     spared me such a severe remark.... You charge me with being
+     inconsistent and changeable, in which opinion you are not, I
+     believe, singular; but until you point out to me where I have been
+     so, I shall till then, plead not guilty in my own mind.
+
+War was now brooding over Canada--the fratricidal War of 1812. But for
+the time Quebec was gay. There was hardly a week without a private ball,
+Tom wrote in February, 1812; and the assemblies, dinners and suppers
+were innumerable. He chaffs his sister Christine, whose rheumatic pains
+had apparently become a kind of family joke, and says that, since they
+are the enemies of high kicking, her inability longer for this pastime
+"is partly the cause of her sounding a retreat to the peaceful shades
+and grottoes of Murray Bay." Polly, the other unmarried sister, was more
+content to be at Murray Bay, with results that led to a family tragedy
+as we shall see later. Her brother pictures her driving his nag with her
+carriole through the country; so reckless is she that she is sure to run
+down some one. "Does she, proud and high, still continue hopping away to
+the country weddings?" His request that Pope's Works and _The Spectator_
+be sent to him seems to indicate a serious turn of mind. He is sending
+to Murray Bay _The Lady of the Lake_ and _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_
+whose middle-aged author was just turning from poetry to win
+unprecedented success as a writer of fiction. In the spring he goes out
+shooting for snipe nearly every day; and he sends to Murray Bay for his
+fishing tackle. When a fellow officer falls ill he sends him down to
+Murray Bay for a month.
+
+Soon came a more active life. War with the United States was near and
+Canada was getting ready. In May, 1812, Malcolm Fraser, led to Quebec
+from Murray Bay and the intervening parishes what militia he could
+muster. At the same time, he was made a commissioner to administer the
+oaths of allegiance: in extreme old age the veteran was ready again to
+do what he could. The Newfoundland regiment, to which Tom belonged, was
+ordered to the interior. The storm cloud drew near and burst on June
+19th, 1812, in the form of a declaration of war by the United States on
+Great Britain. The Americans intended to pour troops into Upper Canada,
+but sparsely settled at that time, and quickly to occupy it. The
+frontier on the Niagara River was the chief danger point and the
+Newfoundland Regiment was sent up to Lake Ontario to aid in the defence.
+On July 3rd, 1812, Tom writes from Kingston in Upper Canada. The news
+has reached him that war has been declared; and already, busy with the
+task of placing men and supplies where they will be most needed, he has
+been the length of Lake Ontario in the _Royal George_; staying two days
+at York, now Toronto; going thence to Niagara and then sailing back to
+Kingston. At Kingston there are 1,000 militia and Carleton Island,
+(where Tom's father had commanded in the War of the American Revolution)
+has been taken by the British--an inglorious success for its garrison
+consisted of but three veterans and some women. The adjacent Indians,
+says the young Captain, "are anxious to be at the Yankees with their
+Toma-hawks." Altogether some exciting campaigns were in prospect and Tom
+was glad that his family was "snug at Murray Bay."
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF LAKE ONTARIO AND R. ST. LAWRENCE TO
+ILLUSTRATE WAR OF 1812]
+
+There, remote and isolated, they seemed indeed safe--so safe that, to
+share the security, a general descent of their friends seemed imminent.
+At Quebec there was, for a time, something like a panic. "Every one
+here," wrote Mrs. Hale to Miss Nairne "is in a complete state of anxiety
+and suspense, not at all knowing whether we shall be attacked, or what
+may become of us. I have just now seen Colonel Fraser, who assures me I
+shall be welcome at your mother's house, in case we should be obliged to
+leave Quebec. [He] advised my writing for fear you should have
+applications from other quarters.... Many ladies are going to
+England.... My spirits are so depressed that I cannot pretend to amuse
+you with any anecdotes." Murray Bay offered its hospitality with great
+heartiness and Mr. Hale wrote, "I believe all Quebec mean to move
+towards you if necessary, so you must prepare."
+
+Quebec was in a flutter of successive excitements, now certain that it
+was invulnerable, now fearing an immediate descent of the enemy, and
+always longing for peace. In England the Orders in Council which
+provoked the war were now revoked, and Malcolm Fraser wrote that this
+must soon bring peace in America, especially since New England and New
+York were against the war. Miss Nairne's friend in Quebec, Judge
+Bowen[23], wrote to her in November, 1812, announcing the armistice for
+six months, arranged some time before, and assuring the ladies at Murray
+Bay that all cause for anxiety was now past,--an illusive hope for the
+armistice was not ratified by President Madison and the war went on. We
+get echoes of social jealousies that may now amuse us. Sir James Craig,
+the late Governor, had repressed sternly the aspirations of the French
+element and had been specially friendly with the Nairne circle; he was
+indeed a cousin of the Nairnes' relative by marriage, James Ker. But now
+with Sir George Prevost as Governor things were changed. Sir George came
+from Halifax and Quebec society looked with green-eyed jealousy upon his
+"Halifax people." "They are not the right sort," Judge Bowen wrote to
+Christine Nairne:
+
+     It will be long before we meet a staff like Sir James Craig's
+     gentlemanly men.... The castle affords no delight but to the
+     Halifax people. They are all Gods, the Quebecers all Devils. As for
+     me I have no desire to be deified.... Would you believe it Pierre
+     Bedard [a French Canadian leader whom Sir James Craig had clapped
+     into prison] is now Judge of the Court of King's Bench at Three
+     Rivers. Would that poor Sir James[24] could raise his head to take
+     a view of the strange scenes daily occurring here; but it is better
+     he should be spared the Loathsome sight. What it will end in I dare
+     scarcely express.
+
+In these days there was ceaseless anxiety at Murray Bay. "We are all
+here in a complete state of suspense," wrote Christine Nairne, "... My
+brother is now in Upper Canada doing duty as a marine officer on board
+the _Royal George_. We are in the utmost anxiety about him but on the
+Almighty we rely for preservation in these horrid times." Echoes came of
+stirring events. Tom wrote of General Brock's succeeds in capturing
+Detroit and with it the American General Hull and his whole army. A
+little later the Detroit garrison was sent to Montreal and Captain
+Nairne, doing duty on the _Royal George_, carried General Hull--"the
+extirpating General" he called him in view of dire threats that Hull had
+made as to what he should do--with 200 prisoners from Niagara to
+Kingston and then in batteaux down the River St. Lawrence on the way to
+Montreal, through whose streets the Canadian militia marched their
+prisoners to the strains of "Yankee Doodle." Elated with the success
+against General Hull, Tom now expected to hear any day that the American
+fort at the mouth of the Niagara River had been taken by General Brock.
+He heard a much sadder tale. Instead of awaiting attack the Americans
+became the aggressors and crossed the river into Canada. In a successful
+attempt to dislodge them from Queenston Heights the gallant Brock was
+slain. The invaders were driven back; but all Canada mourned for Brock.
+Mrs. Bowen wrote to Christine Nairne, "I am sure you will have deeply
+felt the loss of poor General Brock. He was always a great favourite of
+yours as well as mine. Salter Mountain spoke in the highest terms of him
+in his sermon last Sunday."
+
+As the war became more grim in character Captain Nairne formed a fixed
+resolve to see it through to the end. On October 5th, 1812, he writes
+from Kingston that in response to his former request he had just
+received notice of having been put on half pay. With this release he
+might now have retired to the serenity of Murray Bay. But, even though
+he had not changed his mind, this would have been to turn his back on
+fighting when men were most needed. So when Captain Wall of the 49th
+Regiment broke his leg, and was thus rendered unfit for service, with
+him Nairne effected an exchange. "I could not reconcile myself to the
+idea of sneaking down to Murray Bay and forsaking my post at the present
+critical period," he wrote to Fraser. That old soldier was delighted at
+Tom's spirit and made this note at the foot of the letter which
+announced this action:
+
+     Point Fraser, [Murray Bay], Oct. 23rd, 1812: I do hereby certify
+     that my Godson Captain Thomas Nairne has, as I think, acted as
+     becomes him and very much to my satisfaction--Malcolm ffraser.
+
+From Prescott on the 29th of October, 1812, Tom wrote to his mother of
+his delight at being once more a regular "in that distinguished old
+corps the 49th." It was indeed a fine regiment. Brock had led it in
+North Holland and in 1801 it had been on board the fleet at Copenhagen
+with Hyde Parker and Nelson; it is now the Berkshire Regiment and the
+name "Queenston" where its commander, Brock, fell, is on its flag.
+Though a soldier not a sailor, Tom had now one gunboat and three armed
+batteaux under his command, and, when writing, he had just arrived at
+Prescott with the American prisoners taken in the gallant action at
+Queenston where Brock was killed. His tone is serious and tender. "When
+the war is over I trust in God we shall all have a happy meeting again
+at Murray Bay, perhaps never more to part during our stay in this
+world." It was now his plan that if he should outlive the war he would
+go to Edinburgh, find a wife and settle himself on his property without
+loss of time. A few days later, on November 15th, he writes from
+Kingston of a lively incident in which he has taken part. With six
+schooners and an armed tug, the _Oneida_, of 18 guns, all full of
+troops, the Americans had appeared before the place. At 4 o'clock on the
+morning of the 10th the adjutant of the 49th came into Tom's barrack
+room to arouse him with the news that the enemy was thought to be
+landing a force five or six miles above the town. "He lit my candle,"
+says Tom, "and left. I immediately jumped out of bed, dressed myself in
+a devil of a hurry and sallied forth to the Barrack yard where I found
+three Companies of the 49th under arms, Gunners preparing matches and
+artillery horses scampering out of the yards with field pieces." He was
+soon sent to hold a bridge about three miles west of the town. The ships
+kept up a fierce cannonade for some time but it was so briskly returned
+that in the end they drew away having lost four men. But they had
+command of the lake, a supremacy not to be challenged until a British
+Commodore, Sir James Yeo, arrived in the following summer.
+
+In his letters at this time Nairne speaks of his heavy expenses and says
+that even if the opportunity came to visit Murray Bay he could not go
+for lack of money. So he begs his mother to build all the mills and
+houses she can, and thus to make the profits which he sorely needs. He
+complains of hearing from home so rarely: "You have only wrote once, I
+believe, since I came to the Upper Country. What in the name of wonder
+are you all about? I hope Yankey Doodle has not run off with you. I am
+sure there can be no complaints of my being negligent in this way."
+
+The scene changed rapidly. Early in February, 1813, Nairne was sent to
+Niagara. Here for a time he was stationed at Fort George. The Americans
+were now menacing Fort Erie on the Canadian side of the Niagara River.
+But things were looking well for the British. On January 22nd the
+British Colonel Procter defeated the American General Winchester at
+Frenchtown near Detroit and made him and 500 of his men prisoners. Now
+young Nairne talked even of "extirpating" General Harrison whom the
+English were attacking in what is now the state of Ohio. But again high
+hopes were dashed. General Harrison succeeded in forcing the British to
+evacuate Detroit; then he invaded Canada, and before the campaign of
+1813 was over he defeated the British badly at the river Thames in what
+is now Western Ontario. Meanwhile about Niagara there was some lively
+campaigning. In March Nairne describes an exciting night journey in
+sleighs from Fort George to Chippewa near Niagara Falls where an
+American landing was feared. Echoes of more distant wars reach this
+remote frontier. This was the winter of Napoleon's terrible retreat from
+Moscow and word comes, "glorious news certainly if true," that 140,000
+French have been captured by the Russians.
+
+Nearer home the chronicle was less glorious. The American fleet appeared
+before York (Toronto), burned the Parliament Buildings and public
+records, and carried off even the church plate, and the books from the
+library, of Upper Canada's capital, acts avenged by the burning of
+Washington later in the war. Flushed with success, the Americans now
+prepared to attack Fort George in overwhelming force. The 49th, Nairne's
+regiment, were the chief defenders. The attack came on May 27th, 1813.
+There was sharp and bloody fighting. Greatly outnumbered, the British
+were beaten; so hastily did they evacuate the fort that Nairne and
+others lost their personal effects. He writes, somewhat ruefully, that
+he has now only the clothes on his back and his watch, a purse, a family
+ring, and some trinkets. But this had its compensations; now he could
+carry everything in a haversack and blanket. Even paper, pens and ink
+are hardly to be got; he is writing on the last bit of paper he is
+likely to have for some time.
+
+For many weeks the young man took his share in this campaigning in the
+Niagara peninsula. The British headquarters were by this time at
+Burlington Heights at the head of Lake Ontario, half way between Fort
+George and York, the ruined capital. By June the British had turned on
+the foe with vigour. On June 6th they rather stumbled into victory at
+Stoney Creek, capturing two American Generals, Winder and Chandler. On
+June 7th a British squadron, under Sir James Yeo, appeared off
+Burlington Heights, bombarded the American camp on the shore at Forty
+Mile Creek and compelled a retreat towards Fort George. Soon the British
+were menacing the enemy in Fort George itself. Nairne's letters, watched
+for, we may be sure, at Murray Bay with breathless interest, recount the
+incidents of the campaign. At Beaver Dam, only a dozen miles or so from
+Fort George, Lieutenant Fitzgibbon of Nairne's regiment, the 49th,
+entrapped an advancing party of Americans and, by the clever use of 200
+Indian allies, filled them with such dread of being surrounded and
+massacred by the savages that nearly 600 Americans surrendered to little
+more than one-third of their number. These same wild Indians in their
+war paint were enough, Nairne thought, "to frighten the Black Deil
+himsel'," and their proximity in the campaign is one of many causes for
+which he thanks Heaven that the plague of war is so far removed from
+Murray Bay; even if it lasted for years, it would still not reach that
+remote haven, he says. Meanwhile Murray Bay can help him. Two pairs of
+socks, one flannel and one linen shirt, have been the modest increases
+to his wardrobe since the hasty exit from Fort George many weeks before.
+He begs his sisters to make him some shirts and socks, but not many,
+since on the marches, usually made at night, he has to carry all his
+belongings on his own back. The charge of a too elaborate transport
+service sometimes brought against the British army in modern campaigns
+seems to have no place in the War of 1812. The British, few in number
+and defending an immense area, had to do killing work. Nairne says that
+his men were able only rarely even to take off their accoutrements.
+
+With the arrival of Yeo's squadron the war was again half military, half
+naval. Yeo was a brilliant young officer and the remote waters of Lake
+Ontario witnessed some clever naval tactics. The small fleets were
+evenly matched. Chauncey, the American commander, was very cautious and
+would not fight unless he could get the advantage of his longer range of
+guns, while Yeo, if he fought at all, preferred to fight at close
+quarters; so they manoeuvred for position, each declaring that the
+other could not be brought to bay. On August 3rd, 1813, Nairne wrote
+from Burlington Heights to Malcolm Fraser. In an earlier letter that
+veteran had expressed the desire of dancing at Tom's wedding and Tom had
+told him, with the prophetic saving clause "should I outlive this war,"
+that to see his friend of eighty years dancing would be a considerable
+inducement to marry. He hopes that they may soon discuss the war "over a
+good bottle of your Madeira at Mount Murray."
+
+He calls Burlington Heights the stronghold of Upper Canada. "The
+situation we have chosen is by nature a strong position being bounded on
+the east by Burlington bay, on the south by a commanding battery, ditch
+and parapet, this being the only side bounded by the mainland; on the
+west by a morass and creek; on the north by the continuation of this
+same creek, which here discharges itself into Burlington bay. The height
+of the land above the level of the water all round is upwards of 100
+feet and the only side therefore necessary to fortify is the south,
+which I assure you is pretty strongly so." Here was the chief British
+supply depot and Nairne had just been sent thither to aid in repelling a
+menace from the American fleet. He had brought his force from Ten Mile
+Creek, in boats, on the open lake, and the journey, lasting all day, was
+ticklish enough. All the time the American fleet was in pursuit and it
+reached the narrow gateway to Burlington Bay only an hour and a half
+after Captain Nairne entered. The enemy intended to storm the heights,
+and landed 800 men for that purpose; but finding the position too
+strong, they re-embarked their force at daylight on August 1st, and bore
+away for York (Toronto) where they wrought new havoc in that undefended
+and "much to be pitied town."
+
+On August 20th Nairne writes, still from Burlington Heights. This, his
+last letter, gives a dramatic account of a running fight between the
+rival fleets, in the dark, illuminated, however, by the flashes from
+their cannon:
+
+     It was a moment of great anxiety with us when the two fleets lay in
+     sight of each other, the one wishing to avoid coming to hard knocks
+     and the other straining every nerve to be at it. I rode 20 miles to
+     see the hostile squadrons, and, for nearly two days, had the
+     pleasure of observing their movements from the mountain at Forty
+     Mile Creek, and I must confess I never saw a more gratifying or
+     more interesting sight. At 11 o'clock on the night of the last day
+     that I was there (the 10th inst.) Sir James Yeo contrived to bring
+     them [the Americans] to a partial engagement and for an hour and a
+     half the Lake opposite the _Leo_ appeared to be in a continual
+     blaze. I remained in a state of uncertainty as to the result till
+     daylight when I observed the Yanky fleet steering for Fort George
+     with two Schooners less than they had the evening before, and our
+     fleet steering towards York with two additional sail. [They were
+     the _Julia_ and the _Growler_.] The Americans have besides lost two
+     of their largest Schooners, which upset from carrying a press of
+     sail, when our fleet was in chase of them.
+
+While this dramatic fighting is going on before his eyes Nairne's one
+regret is that his present quarters are "completely out of the way of
+broken heads."
+
+Meanwhile at Murray Bay events were happening. Colonel Fraser was kept
+busy. Some of the French Canadians already showed a restiveness that
+ended in open rebellion in 1837 and these misguided people now dreamed
+of using the war with the United States as an opportunity for throwing
+off the British yoke. At Murray Bay traitorous meetings were held.
+Fraser watched them closely and caused a number of the habitants to be
+imprisoned for a time on a charge of treason. For an old man of eighty
+he showed amazing vigour. His neighbours of the Nairne household were
+now in great trouble. Tom's elder sister by five years, Mary, the
+sprightly "Polly" of his letters, had brought grief to her family. She
+made a clandestine marriage with a habitant, the news of which, the
+young man, in his last letter preserved to us, wrote, "nearly bereft me
+of my senses." In those anxious days of domestic difficulty and of war
+the old mother and her two remaining daughters at the Manor House had
+assuredly enough to think of. Then came Fate's sharpest blow. The
+tradition is still preserved at Murray Bay that on November 11th, 1813,
+Mrs. Nairne, the Captain's mother, was in the kitchen at Murray Bay,
+when suddenly a sound like the report of a gun came up as it were from
+the cellar. She put her hands to her head, cried "Tom is killed," and
+sank fainting into a chair. The day and the hour were, it is said, noted
+by those about her.
+
+By this time Thomas Nairne's regiment had passed from Burlington Heights
+to Kingston, at the opposite end of Lake Ontario, some two hundred miles
+away. The St. Lawrence River had now become the chief danger point for
+Canada. On October 21st the American General Wilkinson, with 8,000 men,
+left Sackett's Harbour near the east end of Lake Ontario, opposite
+Kingston, in boats, to descend the St. Lawrence and attack Montreal--the
+identical plan that the British had found so successful in 1760. In
+addition, as fifty years earlier, another American force was to advance
+through the country bordering on Lake Champlain so that the two armies
+might unite before Montreal. From the first the American plans went ill.
+The more easterly force met with ignominious defeat by a handful of
+French Canadians at Chateauguay. Wilkinson did little better. British
+troops, among them Nairne's regiment, were hurried down the river under
+Colonel Morrison to harass, if possible, Wilkinson's rear and to fire
+upon his 300 boats from the points of vantage on the shore. After a slow
+descent, day after day, on the night of November 10th the rear of the
+American force, under General Boyd, landed and encamped near Crysler's
+farm, a short distance above the beginning of the Long Sault Rapids on
+the St. Lawrence, to descend which needed caution. As the American rear
+was some distance from the vanguard, the British, though much inferior
+in numbers, thought the time favourable for attack. On the morning of
+the 11th when General Boyd was about to begin his day's march forward,
+the British, some 800 against a force of 1800, advanced in line. Their
+right was on the river and the line extended to a wood about 700 yards
+to the left. The American general did not refuse the gage of battle and
+a sharp fight followed. Boyd tried to outflank the British left and
+Nairne's company was sent forward to charge for one of the enemy's guns.
+When well in advance it was checked by a deep ravine lying between the
+two armies and the American cavalry made a movement to cut off the
+advancing party. The pause was fatal to Thomas Nairne. A musket ball
+entered his head just above the left ear; he died instantly and without
+pain. The British won the day. After a fierce fight the enemy fled to
+their boats, embarked in great disorder and fled down the river. Their
+generals, when they could hold a council, decided that the attack on
+Montreal must be abandoned.
+
+Meanwhile dead on the field of battle lay Thomas Nairne. When the action
+was over and the enemy had retired, his fellow officers bethought them
+of the body of their companion lying stark where he fell. Already some
+sinister visitor had been upon the spot for his watch was stolen--"as
+was not unusual on such occasions," wrote Nairne's Commanding-officer,
+Colonel Plenderleath, grimly. They dug a grave; Colonel Plenderleath
+stooped over the body to cut off for those who loved him a lock of hair
+falling over the dead face, and then, without a coffin, they laid him in
+the earth. But before the grave was filled a member of the Canadian
+militia stepped forward. He said that he had known Nairne's father, and
+begged that, for the esteem and veneration which he bore that gallant
+soldier, he might be allowed time to provide a coffin for his son. A
+rough box was hastily prepared. In this the body was placed and once
+more lowered into the grave and there, a few yards from where he fell,
+the mortal remains of Thomas Nairne were committed to the earth with the
+solemn rites of the Anglican Church.
+
+The next day Colonel Plenderleath, who was not two yards away when
+Captain Nairne fell, wrote to Judge Bowen what words of comfort he could
+for Nairne's friends:
+
+     He was a gallant officer of most amiable Manners and
+     Disposition.... It may be of some comfort to his family that he has
+     fallen in the honourable service of his country. We obtained a
+     complete victory, having beaten a force greatly superior to ours,
+     driven him from the field of battle, and captured one Gun and
+     several Prisoners.
+
+If Nairne fell Canada was saved and the gallant young officer did not
+die in vain.
+
+News travelled slowly in those days but bad news has swifter wings than
+good; a week after Thomas Nairne fell the particulars of his death had
+reached Quebec. It was Judge Bowen's painful duty to send to Murray Bay
+the intelligence he had received from Nairne's Colonel. He wrote to Mr.
+Le Courtois, the cure, giving the sad news and adding "I understand that
+the enemy have since crossed over to their own side.... Would to God
+their visit had fallen upon any other head than that of our poor
+friends." He begged Mr. Le Courtois, who, himself an exile from France
+because of the Revolution, had witnessed many sad days, to be the
+minister of consolation at this time. "You will, I am sure be the friend
+of the distressed and instil into their bosoms that peace which, I am
+afraid, nothing but your assistance and time can restore to them." Mr.
+Le Courtois was to hand to Miss Nairne a touching and wise letter from
+Bowen. "Do not, my dear Miss Nairne," he wrote, "give way to feelings
+but too natural upon a trying moment like this but rather exert
+yourself to speak comfort and consolation to your dear Mother. Recall to
+her that we are all but sojourners here on earth and that he is but gone
+before to those blessed mansions of eternal peace and happiness where
+she will one day meet him never to part again." Old Malcolm Fraser sent
+the sad news to Tom's friends in Scotland. "I am not fit to write much,"
+he said, but he found comfort in the thought that the young Captain died
+gallantly and that the enemy "must have suffered great loss of men, as
+they were entirely drove off the Field and they lost a piece of cannon.
+But, alas! all this can afford little consolation to his good and
+afflicted mother."
+
+Nairne's body was not allowed to remain where he had fallen. Judge Bowen
+thought he ought to lie at Quebec beside his soldier father and this was
+also in accord with Mrs. Nairne's wishes. Colonel Morrison, the officer
+in command on the field where Nairne fell, had already been transferred
+to the garrison at Quebec and every attention was paid to the task.
+Bowen ordered a strong oak coffin, large enough to contain that in which
+Nairne was buried, and with this itself in an outer box a man was sent
+to bring back the body. He bore a letter from the Bishop of Quebec to
+the clergyman who had buried Nairne. All was carried out as arranged. A
+second time Nairne's body was taken from the grave where it had been
+laid and its bearer began his long winter journey to Quebec. The sleigh
+with its sad burden, a moving dark speck on a white background, made its
+slow way along the wintry roads and by the shores of the ice bound St.
+Lawrence. We can picture the awed solemnity with which the French
+Canadian peasants heard the story of Nairne's fall as his body rested
+for the night in inn or farm yard. On January 20th, 1814, Bowen wrote to
+Mr. Le Courtois that the body would arrive by Saturday as it was at
+Berthier on the previous day when the stage passed.
+
+The funeral took place at one o'clock on the 26th of January, 1814. Of
+the people of Murray Bay a single unnamed habitant was present, a man
+detained by Bowen in Quebec that he might witness the ceremony and carry
+back an account of it to his home. "I examined the body," wrote Bowen
+briefly of what must have been a grim task, "with the assistance of my
+friend Buchanan and there cannot now be the smallest doubt as to the
+identity of it. He was buried poor Fellow in the Cloathes he wore when
+killed. His Regimental Jackit and shoes which were put into his coffin I
+found in it upon opening it and have taken them out and will preserve
+them for his poor friends if so melancholy a Remembrance of him should
+be desired by them." The lock of hair cut off by Colonel Plenderleath at
+the funeral was brought to Quebec by young Sewell, one of Nairne's
+companions; the remainder of his effects, sent forward in a box, seem
+to have been lost on the way. At the funeral the six senior Captains in
+Quebec were his pall bearers and the mourners were fellow officers of
+the 49th and Quebec friends of his family--well-known names--Caldwell,
+McCord, Stewart, Hale, Mountain, Dunn and Bowen himself. A great crowd
+was present. "Never," wrote Bowen to Miss Nairne, "was a funeral at
+Quebec more generally attended." The death of the young officer was too
+tragic not to call forth the sympathy of a wide circle. Eulogies were
+pronounced upon him and they said only what was true--that a soldier,
+brave, lovable and promising had fallen on the field of honour.
+
+[Footnote 22: See Appendix G., p. 287. "The Cures of Malbaie".]
+
+[Footnote 23: Bowen's career was remarkable. He continued on the bench
+until 1866, having held the office of a Judge in Canada for well nigh
+sixty years.]
+
+[Footnote 24: He had recently died, and it did not diminish the Nairnes'
+interest in him that he left L5,000 to their relative Ker.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A FRENCH CANADIAN VILLAGE
+
+     Life at Murray Bay after Captain Nairne's death.--Letters from
+     Europe.--Death of Malcolm Fraser.--Death of Colonel Nairne's widow
+     and children.--His grandson John Nairne, seigneur.--Village
+     life.--The Church's influence.--The habitant's tenacity.--His
+     cottage.--His labours.--His amusements.--The Church's missionary
+     work in the villages.--The powers of the bishop.--His
+     visitations.--The organization of the parish.--The powers of the
+     _fabrique_.--Lay control of Church finance.--The cure's tithe.--The
+     best intellects enter the Church.--A native Canadian clergy.--The
+     cure's social life.--The Church and Temperance Reform.--The
+     diligence of the cures.--The habitant's taste for the
+     supernatural.--The belief in goblins.--Prayer in the family.--The
+     habitant as voter.--The office of Churchwarden.--The Church's
+     influence in elections.--The seigneur's position,--The habitant's
+     obligations to him.--Rent day and New Year's Day.--The seigneur's
+     social rank.--The growth of discontent in the villages.--The evils
+     of Seigniorial Tenure.--Agitation against the system.--Its
+     abolition in 1854.--The last of the Nairnes.--The Nairne tomb in
+     Quebec.
+
+
+With the death of Thomas Nairne almost end the dramatic events in the
+history of the family. It remains briefly to bring this to its
+conclusion, and to add to it some general account of a village of French
+Canada in the past and in the present. Captain Nairne's mother was now
+the owner of the property and it continued in her competent hands until
+her death in 1828. "Polly's" marriage had taken that daughter away and,
+though there was a reconciliation, no longer was the Manor House her
+home. Mrs. McNicol (with her husband and children) and Christine Nairne
+still lived there with the widow of Colonel Nairne, and life went on
+much as before, save that its interests were now narrowed to Murray Bay;
+no more was there an outside career, such as the young Captain's, to
+watch.
+
+When Thomas Nairne was killed the struggle against Napoleon in Europe
+had reached a supreme crisis. Occasional letters to Murray Bay give
+glimpses of great events. On March 16th, 1814, an Edinburgh friend
+writes to Christine: "The Castle was fired to-day in honour of the
+successes of our allies in France who have again routed Bonaparte, who
+has retreated to Paris. His enemies are within twenty-five miles of that
+capital so we must hope that the Tyrant's fate is at the Crisis and that
+we shall soon enjoy the blessings of a permanent peace; much has Bony to
+answer for." Ker wrote a little later from Edinburgh to say that
+Bonaparte "is now a prisoner on board of one of our 74 gun ships," and
+to express the hope that by his fall Britons will soon get quit of the
+property tax.
+
+On March 17th, 1815, we hear from another correspondent of the renewed
+firing of the Castle guns at Edinburgh, this time to announce the
+arrival from America of the ratification of Peace with the United
+States. "We only regret this had not been settled before the disastrous
+affair at New Orleans where we have lost so many brave men and able
+generals, but such are the horrors of war." Just as this peace came in
+America renewed war broke out in Europe. "That monster Bonaparte a
+fortnight since landed and raised the standard of rebellion in the south
+of France. The accounts from there are very contradictory." On March
+22nd the news seems better. "Troops are assembling in defence of France
+and the traitor does not seem to have any adherents, so we would fain
+hope all may go well." The writer, a Miss Beck, sends, for the amusement
+of Murray Bay, the book "Guy Mannering," which is "in very high
+repute ... the author unknown, but very generally thought to be Walter
+Scott, the Poet."
+
+The hope that all would go well in regard to Bonaparte was soon
+dissipated. Ker wrote on April 10th, 1815, a bitter letter:
+
+     We were flattering ourselves with being at Peace with the whole
+     world when like a thunderbolt, the tremendous news of the monster
+     Buonaparte's Escape from Elba, his landing and rapid progress
+     through France, and the second Expulsion of the unhappy Bourbons
+     burst upon us!... We have the immediate prospect of being involved
+     in a bloody and interminable war, the consequences of which no man
+     can foretell. The French army, Marshalls, and Generals have covered
+     themselves with indelible Disgrace and shewn themselves, what I
+     always thought them, the most perfidious and perjured traitors and
+     miscreants that the world ever produced, and the rest of the French
+     Nation are a set of the most unprincipled Knaves and Cowards that
+     ever were recorded in history. I trust however that their
+     punishment is at hand and that the Almighty will speedily hurl
+     vengeance on their guilty heads. Among other evils, a new tax on
+     Property, with additions, is said to be in immediate contemplation
+     and God knows how we shall bear all the accumulating Burdens to
+     which this Country must be subjected.
+
+Just at this time came old Malcolm Fraser's end. At the age of 82 he
+died on June 17th, 1815, the day before the battle of Waterloo. He had
+entered the army in 1757 and apparently was still serving in the
+Canadian militia at the time of his death so that his military career
+covered well nigh sixty years. One instruction given in his will is
+characteristic; it is that his body might "be committed to the earth or
+water, as it may happen, and with as little ceremony and expense as may
+be consistent with decency." His removal was a heavy blow to the family
+at the Manor House. It was Christine who kept most in touch with the
+outside world and to her the letters of the period are nearly all
+addressed. They contained the gossip of Quebec,--how in December, 1814,
+a Mr. Lyman--"a bad name for a true story to come from,"--had brought
+word of peace negotiations at Ghent; news of General Procter's Court
+Martial and of a fee of L500 paid to Andrew Stuart, one of the lawyers
+in the case. The letters are few and in 1817 they cease altogether.
+During the spring of the year Christine had been ailing. On a June day
+she drove out for an airing and, as she alighted from the carriage,
+expired instantly. The feeling of the Protestant family towards the
+Roman Catholic Church is shown in the fact that she left a small legacy
+to the cure, Mr. Le Courtois.
+
+There now remained but two daughters. In May, 1821, "Polly" died in
+Quebec at Judge Bowen's house. Her old mother followed in 1828. Of
+Colonel Nairne's large family but one child remained, Mrs. McNicol. Her
+husband, Peter McNicol, appears to have been a quiet and retiring man
+and of him we hear little. He was an officer in the local militia and,
+in 1830, became a Captain in the second Battalion of the County of
+Saguenay. There were two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas, the elder, was
+to get the estate at Murray Bay; for John India was talked of; but his
+mother could not let him go--"our family has been too unlucky by going
+there." In 1826, when a youth of twenty, Thomas made a tour in Europe.
+Then, or later, the young man fell into dissipated habits and he died in
+early manhood. There remained only John. When he came of age in 1829 he
+too travelled in Europe; in April he was at Rome and there saw the
+newly-elected Pope, Pius VIII. He returned to Canada quite a man of the
+world and for a time lived in Quebec, engaged in business. But in 1834
+when his father Peter McNicol died[25] John's prospects changed. The
+seigniory belonged to his mother, during her lifetime, but he was the
+heir. It seemed desirable that the name of the first seigneur should be
+continued and, in 1834, by royal warrant, John McNicol adopted the name
+and arms of Nairne. Once more was there a John Nairne. In 1837 we find
+him empowered to take the oath of allegiance from the habitants--to show
+that they were not in sympathy with the rebel Papineau. His mother, the
+old Colonel's last surviving child, died in 1839. She was a kindly
+woman, of genial temper, with a fine faculty for friendship; so intimate
+was she with Malcolm Fraser's daughter that she wrote "I do believe, nay
+am sure, she has not a thought with which I am not made acquainted." She
+never lost her sympathy with young people and her delight in their
+"innocent gaiety."
+
+As in 1762, so now again in 1839, a John Nairne ruled at Murray Bay. The
+young seigneur soon took a wife. In 1841 he married Miss Catherine
+Leslie, of a well known Canadian family, a bride of only seventeen, and
+then settled down at Murray Bay to live the life of a country gentleman.
+He became Colonel in the militia, took some part in politics on the
+Conservative side, and studied agriculture. He was resolved to keep up
+the dignity of his position and set about rebuilding the manor house.
+The work was begun in 1845 and completed by the autumn of 1847; the new
+structure with little change is the present Manor. It is of stone
+covered with wood, a capacious dwelling with some fine rooms, and
+admirably suited to its purpose. To John Nairne an heir was born in 1842
+and named John Leslie Nairne and the prospect seemed excellent for the
+final establishment of a Nairne dynasty in the seigniory. But, alas,
+this was not to be. The child died in his third year and the last of the
+Nairnes ruled at Murray Bay knowing that with himself the family should
+become extinct.
+
+We must turn now to study the type of community of which he was the
+chief. A singular type it is, French in speech, Roman Catholic in faith,
+half feudal in organization, in a land British in allegiance, if not in
+origin. Long the determined rival of the Briton in America the French
+Canadian, though worsted in the struggle, remains still unconquered in
+his determination to live his own separate life and pursue his own
+separate ideals. When the British took Canada they fondly imagined that
+in a few years a little pressure would bring the French Canadians into
+the Protestant fold.[26] Immediately after the conquest preparations
+for this gradual absorption were made. The Roman Catholics were to be
+undisturbed but, as soon as a majority in any parish was Protestant, a
+clergyman of that faith would be appointed and the parish church would
+be given over to the Protestant worship. The minority would, it was
+hoped, acquiesce, and, in time, adopt the creed of the majority. The
+most illuminating comment upon these expectations is the fact that,
+during the half century after the conquest, Protestantism made probably
+not more than half a dozen converts among the Canadians, while of
+Protestants coming to the country during that time hundreds went over to
+the Church of Rome. In other ways too the type in French Canada has
+proved curiously persistent. A Lowland Scot of twenty-five married an
+Irish woman of twenty-three and went to live in a French Canadian
+parish. Hitherto they had spoken only English but after twenty-five
+years they could not even understand it when heard. They explained that
+at first they spoke English to each other but when the children went to
+school they used only French. So the parents yielded "_C'etait les
+enfants, M'sieu!_"
+
+A modern critic of France[27] has announced, as a sounding paradox, that
+the French, even of present-day anti-clerical France, are a profoundly
+religious people. Certainly this appears in France's efforts in Canada.
+When the Roman Catholic faith was first planted there the ground was
+watered with the blood of martyrs, done to death by brutal savages. At
+the very time when in France Pascal's satire and scorn were making the
+spiritual sincerity of the Jesuits more than doubtful, in Canada these
+same Jesuits were dying for their faith almost with a light heart. They
+and others, like-minded, won New France for the Catholic Church and to
+that Church the conquered habitant has since clung with a tenacity
+really heroic. He accepts its creed, he believes in its clergy. Whatever
+license of conduct marked the clergy of France in the bad days before
+the Revolution, the clergy in Canada during the 300 years of its history
+have been notable for a severity in morals so austere that hardly once
+in that long period has there been a whisper of scandal. In consequence,
+they have always retained the respect of the people and to-day, in every
+village, the cure commands extraordinary influence.
+
+It may be that to the Church chiefly does the habitant owe the
+preservation of his identity. Inferior to the heretic conqueror in
+social status, the habitant yet retained in religion the sense of his
+own superiority. Was he not a member of an ancient body, in the presence
+of which Protestantism represented a mushroom growth of yesterday? The
+Church taught him that wealth, honour, and worldly power were not always
+given to the faithful; they had the truer riches of spiritual
+privileges and spiritual hopes. What mattered the pride of life in the
+face of these eternal treasures? So the habitant went his way. Led by
+his teachers he showed striking tenacity of character. He would not
+follow the customs of the English. He looked with suspicion upon their
+methods. Even in agriculture, where he had everything to learn, he would
+not imitate him. Their language he would not learn, their religion he
+abhorred; so he remained, and he remains still, true to his own
+traditions, a Gallic island in the vast Anglo-Saxon sea of North
+America.
+
+The habitant has not proved a pliable person. The very name shows his
+sense of his own dignity. Though he held his land under feudal tenure he
+would not accept a designation that carried with it some sense of the
+servile status of the feudal vassal in old France. So the Canadian
+peasant, a feudal tenant _en censive_ or _en roture_, yet wished not to
+be called _censitaire_ or _roturier_, names which he thought degrading;
+he preferred to be called a habitant, an inhabitant of the country, a
+free man, not a vassal. The designation obtained official recognition in
+New France and has come to be the characteristic word for the French
+Canadian farmer among English-speaking people.
+
+In other respects too the Canadian has been hardly less assertive.
+Earlier writers, while they call him obliging, honest and courteous,
+speak also of his self-conceit, boastfulness, fondness for drink. At
+Malbaie Nairne found him defiant when his spirit was aroused. Not less
+tenacious than the men were the women. Malcolm Fraser tells how when he
+was stationed at Beaumont, near Quebec, in January, 1761, he sent one of
+his men to cut wood on the property of a certain habitant, the man
+himself consenting. But Madame, his wife, was not pleased. She abused
+Fraser, called him opprobrious names, and, in a war of words, remained,
+he admits, mistress of the field. The wrathful virago carried her appeal
+to Murray in Quebec, who, she said, had passed many officers under the
+rod and Fraser found himself called upon to explain the matter. In a
+petition he humbly begs that some "recompence" (of punishment of course)
+may be made to the woman for "the insolent expressions used by her as
+well against the general, as the officers, who have the honour to serve
+under His Excellency."
+
+Even when he knows only rude frontier life the French Canadian often
+retains something of the politeness and deference in manner of the
+nation from which he springs. But, unlike them, he has retained little
+sense of what is artistic. No thought of beauty of situation seems to
+determine his choice of the site for his dwelling. What he has in mind
+is protection from the prevailing wind, if this is possible, and, for
+the rest, convenience. So he puts his house close to the highway, in
+many cases even abutting upon it. He shows no taste in grouping his
+farm buildings. He plants few trees and his house stands bare and
+unattractive by the road side. The absence of trees near his dwelling is
+sometimes accounted for by the need, in earlier times, of clearing away
+everything that might offer a chance of ambush to his Indian enemies. If
+this is the true origin of the habit, an instinct survives long after
+the need which developed it has disappeared. The houses are persistent
+in type and nearly always of wood. The principle doorway opens into the
+living room, usually of a good size. It is kitchen, diningroom, parlour,
+often even workshop. In this chamber cooking, sewing, repairing of
+tools, all the varied family activities, take place. One large guest
+chamber or two small bedrooms open off it. In the corner there is a rude
+staircase and up under the sloping roof are two more rooms; one a
+bed-room probably with three or four beds, the other a general lumber
+room. Often there are two families in a household. As always with the
+French, family feeling is very strong. As soon as they are old enough
+the elder sons may go out into the world; it is usually a younger son
+whom the father selects to remain with him on the family property. This
+son is free to marry and to him, when the old father dies, the land goes
+on condition that he will always keep the door open to members of the
+family who may seek its refuge. It is not easy to see how so small a
+cottage can discharge these hospitable functions; in addition to adults
+there are often, in a French Canadian family, from ten to fifteen,
+sometimes twenty or twenty-five children. Through the long winters,
+doors and windows remain closed. The family gets on without fresh air
+and it gets on also without baths.
+
+Since there are often many hands to do the work habitant farming is
+greatly diversified. But improvements come only slowly. Some of the most
+fertile areas in Quebec have been half ruined because the habitant would
+not learn the proper rotation of crops. Of the value of fertilizing he
+has had only a slight idea. His domestic animals are usually of an
+inferior breed, except perhaps the horses. Of these he is proud and, no
+matter how poor, usually keeps two, an extravagance for which he was
+rebuked by successive Intendants under the French regime. In recent
+times the French Canadian farmer has been making great progress. He is
+pre-eminently a handy man. Though his versatility is lessening, to this
+day, in some of the remoter villages, he buys almost nothing; he is
+carpenter, farmer, blacksmith, shoemaker; and, if not he, his wife is
+weaver and tailor. The waggon he drives is his handiwork; so is the
+harness; the home-spun cloth of his suit is made by his wife from the
+wool of his own sheep: it is an excellent fabric but, alas, the young
+people now prefer the machine-made cottons and cloths of commerce and
+will no longer wear homespun. Sometimes the habitant makes his own
+boots, the excellent _bottes sauvages_ of the country. The women make
+not only home-spun cloth, but linen, straw hats, gloves, candles, soap.
+When there are maple trees, the habitant provides his own sugar; he
+makes even the buckets in which the sap of the maple tree is caught.
+Tobacco grows in his garden, for the habitant is an inveterate smoker:
+sometimes the boys begin when only five years old or less. The women and
+the girls, indeed, do not smoke and an American visitor, who declares
+that he saw pretty French Canadian brunettes of sixteen puffing clouds
+of smoke as they worked in the harvest field, is solemnly rebuked by a
+French Canadian writer; the brunettes must have been Indian women.[28]
+
+Though nearly all the children now go to school, yet reading can hardly
+be considered one of the amusements of the habitant. In the
+neighbourhood of Malbaie, at least, rarely does one see other than books
+of devotion in a habitant household; the book-shelf is conspicuous by
+its absence. Of course newspapers are read but many of the habitants are
+still illiterate, or nearly so, and read nothing. Not less gay are they
+for this deprivation. They are endless talkers, good story tellers, and
+fond of song and dance. They have preserved some of the popular songs of
+France,--_Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre_, _En roulant ma Boule
+roulant_, _A la Claire Fontaine_, and others--and these airs simple,
+pleasing, a little sad, have become characteristic of French Canada.
+Nearly every house has its violin, often home-made, and though this
+music is rude it suffices for dancing. But some of the bishops are as
+severe in regard to dancing as is the Methodist "Book of Discipline" and
+in their dioceses the practise is allowed only under narrow
+restrictions. The short Canadian summer makes that season for the
+habitant one of severe labour. Winter, though it has its own labours,
+such as cutting wood, is the great season of social intercourse. For a
+long time the habitant would not consider a mechanic his social equal;
+perhaps, still, the daughters of a farmer would spurn the advances of
+the village carpenter. But whatever the social distinctions, baptisms,
+marriages, anniversaries, are made the occasions for festivity. There
+are _corvees recreatives_, such as parties gathered for taking the husks
+off Indian corn, when there is apt to be a good deal of kissing as part
+of the game. At New Year, the _jour de l'an_, the feasting lasts for
+three days. Hospitality is universal and it is almost a slight not to
+call at this time upon any acquaintance living within a distance of
+twenty miles. Every habitant has his horse and sleigh and thinks little
+of a long drive.
+
+Often in the foreground of the habitant's life, always in the background
+at least, stand the Church and the priest. Malbaie, like a hundred other
+populous, present-day Roman Catholic parishes, was nursed in the first
+instance by the travelling missionary. In winter he could go on snow
+shoes but his usual means of travel in a country, covered by forests,
+but with a net-work of lakes and rivers, was by canoe. Malbaie could be
+reached either from Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, one of the
+earliest mission stations in Canada, or from Baie St. Paul in the other
+direction. The St. Lawrence was oftentimes a perilous route. Its waves
+rise at times huge as those of Ocean itself; a frail canoe could only
+hug the shore and at times would be storm bound for days. The missionary
+travelled usually with an attendant. They carried a portable chapel with
+the vessels necessary for the celebration of the mass. We have a
+description of the arrival of one of these missionaries, the Abbe Morel,
+as long ago as in 1683, at Riviere Ouelle where one now takes the ferry
+to cross to Murray Bay. A group of people stand on the shore watching a
+small black object round a distant point. As it comes nearer they see it
+is a birch bark canoe, paddled by two men. In a short time the bow of
+the canoe has touched the sandy beach where stands the waiting group. As
+the figure in the bow rises a long black cassock falls down to his
+feet; he is the long expected missionary come to celebrate mass. With
+the sun sinking behind the mountains of the north shore, a kind of
+triumphal procession escorts the missionary to one of the neighbouring
+houses. The evening is spent in preparation for the service of the
+morrow. The priest hears confessions and imposes penances. At daybreak
+on the following morning the people begin to gather, some coming by land
+from the neighbouring clearings, others, in birch bark canoes, from
+points more distant. Perhaps fifty persons gather before the house.
+Meanwhile in its best room the portable altar has been arranged. Silence
+falls upon the people as they enter the door. The mass begins; after the
+gospel the priest preaches a practical sermon with impressive solemnity.
+The mass over, a second service, vespers, soon follows. Then the people
+separate. Before the priest leaves he says the office of the dead over a
+grave made, it may be, many weeks ago, he baptizes children born since
+his last visit, and perhaps marries one or more bashful couples. "How
+beautiful upon the mountains," says a Canadian historian of the work of
+these devoted men, "are the feet of those who bring the gospel of
+peace."[29] Such a scene we may be sure was enacted many a time for the
+benefit of the scattered sheep at Malbaie before and after the arrival
+of Colonel Nairne.
+
+It was not until 1797 that these occasional services ceased and Murray
+Bay secured a resident priest. Then was fully established in the parish
+the imposing church system that to-day probably retains its original
+vigour more completely in the Province of Quebec than in any other
+country in the world. At its head is the diocesan bishop. Subject only
+to the distant authority of the Pope he reigns supreme. With one or two
+exceptions, such as that of the cure of Quebec, he appoints and he can
+remove any and every priest in his diocese, a right, it is said, almost
+never exercised arbitrarily. He fixes the tariff to be paid for masses.
+It is he who determines whether such a practise as, for instance,
+dancing shall be permitted in the diocese. He watches over the Church's
+rights and gives the alarm when a political leader proposes anything
+that seems to menace them. If a newspaper adopts a course dangerous to
+the Church it has often happened that the bishop gives it one or two
+warnings; in case of continued obstinacy his last act is to forbid the
+faithful to read the paper; and since most of them will obey, this
+involves ruin for the recalcitrant journal.
+
+The bishop visits each parish at least every third year and sometimes
+even annually. A mounted cavalcade will probably meet him as he crosses
+its boundary. A procession is formed. The roads have been cleared and
+decorated with boughs of ever-green trees stuck in the ground. The
+people watch the cavalcade from their doors and all kneel as the
+procession passes. The bishop goes at once to the church where he gives
+his benediction and holds confirmation. He remains for some days. There
+is daily communion and spiritual instruction. He inspects
+everything--the church and its furnishings, the registers, the accounts,
+the inventory of effects, the cemetery. He has already given notice that
+he is ready to hear any complaints or grievances even against the cure.
+We may be sure that when he comes there is a general clearing up of
+parochial difficulties. A wise bishop is a great peacemaker; an
+arbitrary one commands an authority not lightly to be disregarded.
+
+The church that towers over the humble cottages of a French Canadian
+village invariably seems huge. But we need to remember how large are the
+parishes and how few in number relatively are the churches; it is
+probable that in English-speaking Canada there are half a dozen
+churches, or more, to every one in the Province of Quebec. In all
+Canada, rural and urban, there is probably not a Protestant parish to
+which are attached as many, or perhaps half as many, people as the five
+thousand who dwell in the parish of St. Etienne de la Malbaie, one of
+secondary importance in the Province of Quebec. In a whole diocese there
+are often not more than forty or fifty parishes. In the country the
+churches are usually built at intervals of not more than three leagues
+(nine miles) so that no one may have to travel more than a league and a
+half to mass. The life of the people centres in the Church. In its
+registers, kept with great accuracy, is to be found the chief record of
+the village drama, the story of its births, marriages and deaths. True
+to the tastes of old France the French Canadian has an amazing interest
+in family history, and genealogies, based upon these ample records, are
+closely studied. In the olden days the habitant brought his savings to
+be kept in the Church's strong chest. The church edifice, its pictures
+and its other furnishings, are things in which to take pride. Each
+village aspires to have its own chime of bells. To chronicle baptisms,
+marriages, burials, anniversaries, the chimes are rung for a longer or
+shorter time according to the fee paid. Every day one hears them often
+and a considerable revenue must come from this source. Whatever the
+habitant knows of art, painting, sculpture, music, he learns from the
+Church and it is all associated with religious hopes and fears.
+"Dwellers in cities," says a French Canadian writer, "have concerts,
+theatres, museums; in the rural communities it is the Church that
+provides all this. During her services the most fervent among the
+faithful taste by anticipation the joys of heaven and murmur, enchanted:
+'Since here all is so beautiful in the house of the Lord how much more
+so will it be in his paradise!'"[30]
+
+Thus it happens that here the parish and its church have a significance
+not felt where, as now in practically all English speaking countries,
+each community represents a variety of religious beliefs. At Malbaie, as
+in dozens of other parishes, there is not, except in summer, a single
+Protestant. So strong is the pressure of religious and social opinion,
+that even persons with no belief in Christianity are constrained to join
+outwardly at least in the church services. In the villages, at least,
+nearly every one confesses and partakes of the communion many times in
+the year; at Easter there are practically no abstentions from the
+sacrament. With this unanimity it has been possible to establish by
+legislation a most elaborate system providing for the support of the
+priests, for keeping up cemeteries and other parish needs. Elsewhere
+left largely to voluntary action, in Quebec such duties become a tax on
+the community as a whole. Whether a parishioner likes it or not, he
+must, if the taxpayers so determine, pay his share for building a church
+or for other similar expenditure decided upon.
+
+We will suppose that a new residence for the priest is desired. A
+majority of ratepayers must address to the bishop of the diocese a
+petition with a plan of what is proposed. The commission of five
+members which exists in every diocese then gives ten days' public notice
+in order that objectors may have every opportunity to express their
+views. When, in the end, a decision to build is reached, the
+commissioners announce this by public proclamation. The next step is for
+the ratepayers of the parish to meet and vote the necessary money.
+Trustees are then appointed to carry out the work with power to collect
+the required funds from the Catholic ratepayers. This assessment is a
+first charge on the land; it must be divided into at least twelve equal
+instalments and the payments are spread over not less than three, or
+more than eight, years. To be quite safe the trustees levy fifteen per
+cent. more than the estimated cost. If ready money is not on hand for
+the work the church property may be mortgaged. When the building is
+completed the trustees render their accounts with vouchers and take oath
+that they are correct. All is precise, clearly defined, business-like.
+
+No expenditure of money can be made for building without the consent of
+the people. Always in French Canada a trace of old Gallican liberties
+has remained, in the power over Church finances left in the hands of
+churchwardens (_marguillers_) elected by the people. But in the old days
+when the habitant was more ignorant and less alert than now he is, no
+doubt the voice in this respect might be the voice of the churchwarden,
+but the hand was the hand of the cure. No doubt, also, it is still true
+that any project upon which the cure sets his heart he will in the end
+probably get a majority of the parishioners to adopt. But he must
+persuade the people. Sometimes they oppose his plan strenuously and
+feeling runs high. Then when a churchwarden is elected, as one is
+annually, the cure may have his candidate, the opposing party theirs. At
+Malbaie recently there was a sharp difference of opinion between the
+cure and the people on a question relating to the cemetery. The parties
+divided on the choice of a churchwarden and the cure's candidate was
+defeated.
+
+Yet the cure's position is one of great strength and authority. He has
+his own income uncontrolled by the _fabrique_, which is master of the
+rest of the church finances. The cure's tithe consists of one
+twenty-sixth of the cereals produced by the parishioners. A further
+tithe he has: the twenty-sixth child born to any pair of his
+parishioners is by custom brought to the priest and he rears it;
+sometimes, strange to say, this tithe is offered! From his tithe on
+cereals the income is not large; at Malbaie it is probably never more
+than from $1000 to $1200 a year; sometimes much less. The average income
+of a cure is not more than $600. It is the custom for the parishioner to
+deliver duly at the priest's house one twenty-sixth of his grain and in
+the autumn a great array of vehicles may be seen making their way
+thither. Usually there is considerable variety in the grain thus brought
+but sometimes the cure is almost overwhelmed by a single product such as
+peas; one of their number, thus paid, the neighbouring clergy christened
+the "_cure des pois_." The French Canadian farmer is often narrowly
+penurious and if he will not pay, as sometimes happens, the cure rarely
+presses him or takes steps to recover what the law would allow. In any
+case a bad harvest is likely to leave the cure poor. Changes in the type
+of farming may also curtail his income. Of the products of dairy farming
+he gets no share, yet it is a creditable fact that many priests have
+urged their people to adopt this kind of farming. Fees for weddings
+which, in Protestant Churches, go usually to the minister, are in the
+Province of Quebec handed over to the general church fund. Of course the
+priest has sources of income other than the tithe. He receives fees for
+masses but the sums chargeable for these ceremonies are determined by
+the bishop; the priest himself has no power of undue exaction. There is
+indeed no evidence of a desire for such exaction. Whatever personal
+differences may arise, the French Canadian cure is usually one in
+thought and aim with his people. Wherever he goes he is always
+respectfully saluted. To him the needy turn and there are heavy calls
+upon his charity. Few cures have any surplus income. They keep up a
+large house and have constant need of one or more horses. Most cures, it
+is said, die poor.
+
+It is the complaint in Great Britain and the United States that, rather
+than enter the Christian ministry, the best intellects are seeking
+secular pursuits. This is not the case in the Province of Quebec. The
+cures watch the promising boys in the schools. The Church has many
+boarding schools where boys are led on step by step to the final one of
+entering the priesthood. A promising boy, if he needs it, is given a
+scholarship. When the time comes he is sent to complete his education at
+Rome or elsewhere. The Church has selected him, trained him in her
+service, and, for the rest of his life, his best powers are at her call.
+Every family is ambitious to have a representative in the priesthood and
+this becomes the most notable thing not merely in the family but also in
+the parish. The Province of Quebec has many parish histories. These
+volumes are rather dreary reading, it must be admitted, consisting
+chiefly of the record of the building or improvement of the church and
+of the coming and the going of the cures. But one chief record is always
+found--that of the sons of the parish who have entered the priesthood.
+They are its glory. Not merely pride in the success of their offspring
+leads parents to wish for a son in the priesthood. He may bring to them
+more substantial benefits. He is the interpreter of sacred mysteries,
+the intercessor in some respects between God and man, and he will plead
+for them in the court of Heaven.
+
+This ambition to get sons into the priesthood has made it possible now
+for the Church to rely wholly upon priests Canadian in origin. Not
+always was this the case. After the British conquest it was not easy to
+get priests. The British government frowned upon the introduction of
+priests from France, still Britain's arch-enemy. Irish priests were
+thought of, but they could not speak French and, besides, the Bishop of
+Quebec did not find in them the submissive obedience of the Canadian
+priest. For a time it was seriously proposed to supply Canada with
+priests from Savoy, since of them Britain could have no political fears.
+But for the time the French Revolution solved the question. Emigre
+priests, driven from France, could be in Canada no political danger to
+Great Britain since, like her, they desired the overthrow of the
+existing French government. So a good many emigre priests were brought
+out, among them Mr. Le Courtois, so long the cure of Malbaie. This
+movement soon spent itself. In time the Church in Canada had a number of
+seminaries for training priests and it now levies a heavy tithe upon the
+best intellects of the country. Recently a new emigration of French
+priests to Canada has taken place. But they have not been wholly
+welcome; their tone is not quite that of the Canadian priesthood;
+sometimes they assume patronizing airs and they are felt to be
+foreigners. I have even heard a French Canadian priest say in broken
+English to a Protestant from the Province of Ontario: "I feel that I
+have more in common with you than I have with the French priests who are
+flocking into this country."
+
+The Canadian cure is the priest always. Unlike the clergy in other parts
+of Canada he wears his cassock even when he goes abroad; one sees dozens
+of these black robes in the streets, on the steamers and trains. He does
+not share in the amusement of other people. In Quebec Anglican clergymen
+play golf and tennis; probably if a cure did so he might be called to
+account by the bishop. Occasionally priests ride bicycles, but even this
+is looked upon with some suspicion. Into general society the priests go
+but little. They come together in each other's presbyteries for mutual
+counsel and to celebrate anniversaries, such as the 25th year of the
+ordination of one of their number. The large presbyteries, which one
+sees even in remote parishes, are necessary to house the visiting clergy
+on such occasions. They assist each other when their parishes have
+special fetes. But their social intercourse is chiefly with each other.
+The courtly abbe of old France, a universal guest in salons and at
+dinner tables, is hardly found at all in the Province of Quebec. Nor is
+the scholar usual. Even in small parishes there are rarely less than 500
+or 600 communicants and the calls upon the cure's time are heavy. There
+are, of course, priests of literary tastes; as there are those with a
+taste for art, to whom are due the occasional good pictures found in the
+parish churches. Some priests interest themselves in agriculture and
+give wise guidance to their people. But behind everything is the solemn,
+severe, exacting, conception of the priest's high function as the medium
+of God's speech to man. He is almost sexless--a being apart consecrated
+to an awe-inspiring office. A mother will sometimes quiet an unruly
+child by threatening the portentous intervention of the cure.
+
+Yet he is the universal friend. His relation to his people is not merely
+official; it is affectionate, personal. The confessional makes him
+familiar with the intimate details of nearly every one's life. On all
+the joyous and sad crises, at births, marriages, and deaths, he is at
+hand with sympathy, comfort and support. When he goes on a journey he
+looks up not merely his own but his parishioners' friends and is welcome
+everywhere. He is the general counsellor, the reconciler of family
+quarrels, the arbitrator in differences, the guardian of morals. The
+seigneur at Malbaie found the priest enquiring as to the manner in which
+the male and female servants of the Manor were lodged.
+
+Colonel Nairne thought that the Church was too willing to see the people
+remain ignorant; with her the primary virtue is obedience. But it is
+not less true that on moral questions, such as sobriety and purity, the
+Church has always shown great vigilance and zeal. In the old days there
+was a mighty struggle between the Bishop of Quebec and the governor
+Frontenac as to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and the Church is
+still keen for temperance. It is due to her that public drinking places
+are unknown in most Canadian villages. At Murray Bay it happened
+recently that, by some lapse in vigilance, the party favourable to the
+granting of licenses got the upper hand. The results were immediate and
+deplorable. Summer visitors frequently found their drivers under the
+influence of liquor and the habitant, usually courteous and respectful,
+was now often rude and quarrelsome. The sudden fall made one realize how
+slight might be the strength of virtue due merely to the absence of
+temptation. The Church saw the danger. In the following winter she began
+a systematic temperance campaign. For some ten days daily services were
+held at which eloquent denunciations of intemperance roused the people.
+Every effort was made to ensure attendance at these services and the
+parish church, a great structure, was well filled daily. Hundreds signed
+the pledge and by the next summer all was changed. No one was licensed
+to sell liquor and the community was sober. If the relapse had been
+rapid it must be admitted that the recovery was not less so.
+
+The cure and his assistants do their work with the precision and
+regularity of a business man in his office. They watch education, and
+have their own educational ideals. In the public schools of the
+English-speaking world in America, manners and religion receive, alas,
+but slight attention. But in Quebec one need only pass along a country
+road to see that the children are taught respect and courtesy. The chief
+subject of instruction is religion and to prepare the children for the
+first communion seems to be the main aim of education. In the parish the
+priest is never far away. Nearly always one or other of the clergy is at
+the presbytery to answer calls of urgency, and their duties begin at an
+early hour. "I am very busy until nine o'clock in the morning," a cure
+once said to me. My comment was that most of us are only beginning the
+serious duties of the day at that hour. "But I am tired by that time,"
+he said, rather sadly, "for already, so early in the day, I have heard
+much of human sin." The people come early in the morning to confess and
+by nine o'clock the cure was weary of the tale of man's frailty.
+Thursday is his day of recreation. Only on that day usually does he
+leave his parish and then he always arranges that a neighbouring priest
+shall be within call. This oversight is not spasmodic; it is persistent,
+alert, universal, and hardly varies with the individual cure. In human
+society there is no institution more perfectly organized than the Roman
+Catholic Church and in Quebec her traditions have a vitality and vigour
+lost perhaps in communities more initiated. Of course not every one
+accepts or heeds the cure's ministry. Many a _mauvais sujet_ is careless
+or even defiant but, when his last moments come, at his bedside stands
+the priest to show to the repentant sinner the path of blessedness, and,
+when he is gone, his wayward course will give ground to call the living
+to earlier obedience.
+
+In the Canadian parishes faith is simple, with a pronounced taste for
+the supernatural. In the year 1907 a Jesuit priest, M. Hudon, published
+at Montreal the life of Marie Catherine de Saint Augustin, 1632-1668, a
+Quebec nun. This devout lady lived in an atmosphere charged always with
+the supernatural. She knew of events before they happened; with demons
+who tempted her she had terrific combats; she read the thoughts of
+others with divine insight. Perhaps the climax of her experiences is
+found when she has regularly, as confessor and mentor, the Jesuit father
+and martyr Breboeuf, dead for some years. M. Hudon declared that he
+had submitted the evidence for these wonders to all the tests that
+modern scientific canons could require and that they were undoubtedly
+true. The Archbishop of Quebec, Mgr. Begin, wrote a prefatory note
+approving of the teaching of the book, and adding that Mother Marie
+Catherine's life could not fail to be an inspiration to young girls to
+live nobly. This simple belief in the constant occurrence of the
+supernatural is not found only in the remoter parishes of the Province
+of Quebec as a French Canadian writer seems to indicate;[31] it appears
+everywhere. All Christians believe in a God who shapes human events and
+hears and answers prayer. But many, Catholic and Protestant alike,
+believe that the energy of God, in response to man's appeal, is applied
+through the ordinary machinery of nature's laws. Modern thought is
+pervaded with the conception of nature's rigour. I have seen good
+Catholics shrug their shoulders at the wonders narrated by Marie
+Catherine de Saint Augustin. But others, and these not only the
+ignorant, think that this attitude shows the lack of a deeper faith.
+Must God and his saints, they ask, be confined within the narrow
+framework of nature's laws? Cannot He do all things?
+
+So it is not strange that the Canadian peasant dwells in a world charged
+with the supernatural. Night furnishes the opportunity for goblins to be
+abroad; the flickering lights on the marshes are goblin fires. Then,
+too, the vagrant dead wander about restlessly, sinful souls refused
+entrance to Heaven until they have sought and secured adequate prayers
+for their pardon and relief. To cross a cemetery at night might attract
+the fatal vengeance of the dead thus disturbed. The grumbling mendicant
+at the door may really be an evil spirit bent on mischief. With a few,
+magic and the gift of the evil eye are still dreaded forces and it is
+well to know some charm by which evil may be averted. Since night is the
+time of danger, if abroad then be watchful; if at home close doors and
+windows, ere you go to sleep. I was once on a fishing expedition with
+habitant guides when we had to share the same _cabane_. The air becoming
+insufferable, I got up quietly, opened the door and went back to bed.
+Presently I heard one of the guides steal softly to the door and close
+it. When I thought he was asleep I opened it again. But in vain; once
+more it was closed. In the morning nothing was said about it. Certainly
+not cold was what he feared, for the weather was hot. I do not think it
+was the mosquitoes. Was it the goblins?
+
+A simpler and touching faith is common. Every one has noticed in the
+Province of Quebec the numerous crosses by the way side. These Calvaires
+are of rough wood, usually eight or ten feet high; sometimes with the
+cross are the dread implements of Christ's pain--the crown of thorns,
+the hammer and nails, the executioner's ladder, the Roman soldier's
+spear. Often at the foot is a box for alms to help the forgotten dead
+who are in purgatory. As the habitant passes them he usually lifts his
+hat. The Calvaires are a kind of domestic altar to which the people
+come. In the summer evenings one may see a family grouped about them in
+prayer. When there is need for special prayers, several families will
+come across the fields to meet at the Calvaire. Dr. Henry, of whom more
+later, tells how at Malbaie some eighty years ago he found in the
+cottages social family worship night and morning. It is to be feared
+that the present generation at Malbaie is less devout, corrupted it may
+be by the heretic visitors' bad influence and example. But still the
+guide with whom one goes camping rarely neglects his evening devotions.
+In some families prayer sanctifies all the actions of the day. There is
+prayer at rising, prayer at going to bed. Though here, as in France,
+women are spoken of as only _creatures_, the mother is usually better
+educated than the father and often leads these devotions, the others
+joining in the responses. Before meals is recited a prayer, usually the
+_Benedicite_. There is often a family oratory and here at the
+appropriate seasons, in the month consecrated to the special family
+saint and guardian, in May, the Virgin's month, in June, that of the
+Sacred Heart, in November, "the month of the dead," special prayers are
+said. On Sunday evenings the family chant the Canticles. The Church's
+feasts are marked by festal signs such as the laying of the best rugs
+on the floor. If there is drought groups gather frequently at the
+Calvaires to pray for rain. Occasionally such supplications have a
+curiously commercial basis in frugal minds. A habitant's wife, learning
+that a near neighbour had made an offering to the cure for prayers for
+rain, declared that she would give nothing, since if rain fell on the
+neighbour's farm it would not stop there: "_S'il mouille chez les
+Pierrot Benjamin, il mouillera ben icitte_."[32]
+
+In each year, if he chooses, the habitant has a good many chances to
+cast his vote. The Church, the greatest institution of the village has
+its annual election--that for a churchwarden; of the three churchwardens
+one retires every year. An annual election there is also for the
+municipal council, two or three of whose members retire each year. This
+body looks after the highways, the granting of licenses to sell
+spirituous liquors and so on. Annually also are elected school
+commissioners, who have charge of education. The municipal council and
+the school commission are comparatively new institutions in the Province
+of Quebec. They have been borrowed from the Anglo-Saxon world, but the
+habitant takes kindly to the elector's privileges and struggles are
+sometimes keen. The innovation of the ballot not having been adopted, as
+yet, in municipal elections, the voting is open. Every voter must thus
+show his preferences and when a moral question, such as the licensing of
+drinking places, is before the electors this open voting aids the
+Church's influence. Usually the cure is an ardent temperance man and to
+vote for a license against his wishes, made known perhaps from the
+pulpit, needs great strength of conviction. It thus happens that a very
+large number of parishes in the Province of Quebec have no licensed
+drinking places.
+
+Of offices in the gift of the village voter those in the Church are the
+most highly esteemed. To be a municipal councillor or a school
+commissioner is indeed all very well. But the village council is not
+really very important. It spends only a few hundred dollars a year and
+to keep up the roads is not an exciting task. The village council rarely
+has even the "town hall" usual in other communities; it meets in the
+"salle publique," or the vestry, of the Church, or in the school house.
+The school commissioners too have no very dazzling work to do. The cure
+is sometimes their chairman and thus in some degree they come under the
+control of the Church. The commissioners appoint the teachers in the
+schools and keep up the school buildings, but their outlay is also very
+small, for the salaries of teachers, usually women, are appallingly low.
+The really important elective office in the parish is that of
+churchwarden (_marguiller_). In the church the churchwardens have a
+special seat of honour assigned to them. They control the temporalities
+and may beard even the cure himself. Large sums of money pass through
+their hands. They receive the pew rents,--and every habitant has a pew;
+they receive the voluntary offerings. It often happens that the Church
+accumulates large sums of money and that, if the building of a
+_presbytere_ or parish church is decided upon, there is enough on hand
+to pay for it outright. The municipal council and the schoolboard, on
+the other hand, are always poor. The habitant watches their taxation
+with a parsimonious scrutiny and it is a thankless task to carry on
+their work.
+
+Municipal interests represent of course only a part of the village's
+political thought. In provincial politics, federal politics, there is
+often in Quebec an interest keener even than in other parts of Canada.
+It would be too much to say that the habitant has a wide outlook on
+public questions; but the village notary and the village doctor are
+likely to have political ambitions and rivalry becomes acute; often
+indeed the curse of the village is the professional politician. At times
+in Quebec politics have been closely associated with religion and always
+the bishops are persons to be reckoned with. Their attitude has ever
+been that, if the policy of one or the other party seems to be inimical
+to the Church, they have the right to direct Catholic electors to vote
+against such a party. From the point of view of British supremacy in
+French Canada it would be a mistake to say that the bishops in a
+political role have always been mischievous. After the conquest they
+soon became the most staunch supporters of the authority of George III
+and through the Church the British conqueror was able to reach the
+people. When the American Revolution began, the bishops were strenuous
+for British connection and from the pulpits came solemn warnings against
+the Americans. Again in Britain's war on Revolutionary France the
+Canadian bishops were with her, heart and soul. They ordered _Te Deums_
+when Nelson destroyed the French fleet at the battle of the Nile, and
+over Trafalgar there were great rejoicings. After Waterloo we find in
+French Canada perhaps the most curious of all the thanksgivings; at
+Malbaie, as elsewhere, a _Te Deum_ was sung and the people were told in
+glowing terms of the victory of the "immortal Wellington" which had
+covered "our army" with glory and ended a cruel war. Later, in the days
+of Papineau, the Church opposed rebellion; she has since opposed
+annexation to the United States. She has also helped to preserve order.
+If a crime was to be detected, the cure read from the pulpit a demand
+that any one, who could give information to further this end, should do
+so. Solemn excommunication was pronounced against offenders; to make the
+warning impressive the priest would drop to the ground a lighted candle
+and put it out with his foot; so would God extinguish the offenders thus
+denounced, and those who abetted their crimes.
+
+Since the Church has aided the state, not unnaturally she expected some
+special favours in return. She got them in the days of the early British
+governors of Canada. Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester,
+secured for the Church the legal power to levy the tithe on Catholics
+and practically all the other privileges she had enjoyed under the old
+regime. The bishops tended to become more and more active in politics
+and this reached a climax in 1896. With great heat the bishops threw
+themselves into the attack on the Liberal party, because it would not
+support the Church's demands for her own separate schools in Manitoba,
+supported by taxes levied on Roman Catholics by the state. Some of the
+bishops went too far in denunciation; an appeal against their action was
+carried by Catholics to the Pope and the offenders were rebuked. The
+incident showed that in politics the habitant knows his own mind, for he
+gave an overwhelming support to the party on which the bishops were
+warring. Since then many a habitant draws a sharp distinction between
+the spiritual and the political claims of the bishops. Their full
+spiritual authority he does not doubt; in politics he thinks his own
+opinion as good as theirs.
+
+If in spiritual matters the Church led it was intended that in temporal
+affairs too the habitants should always have guidance. An old world
+flavour seems to pervade the relations between seigneur and vassal in a
+French Canadian parish. The seigneur was himself the vassal of the
+crown, bound to do humble homage at the capital when he received his
+grant. We have a detailed account of the ceremony as performed, perhaps
+for the first time under British rule. On December 23rd, 1760, in the
+morning one Jacques Noel, a seigneur, accompanied by royal notaries,
+proceeded to the government house in Quebec. He knocked at the principal
+entrance and, when a servant appeared, Noel asked if His Excellency
+James Murray, the Governor, was at home. The servant replied that His
+Excellency was within and that he would give him notice. On being
+admitted to the presence of the Governor, Noel with head uncovered, and,
+to symbolize his humble obedience, wearing neither sword nor spur, fell
+on his knees before him and declared that he performed faith and homage
+for the seigniory to which, on his father's death, he had become the
+heir. He then took an oath on the gospels to be faithful to the king and
+to be no party to anything against his interests; to hold his own
+vassals to the same obedience; and to perform all other duties required
+by the terms of his holding.
+
+The Crown required very little of the seigneur and so, in truth, did the
+seigneur of his tenants. Their annual payment of _cens et rentes_ rarely
+amounted to more than a very few dollars. When it fell due in the autumn
+they were given abundant notice. Still in the Canadian parishes, when
+the Sunday morning mass is over, the crier stands on a raised platform
+near the church door, the people gather round, and the announcement is
+made of tithes and taxes due, of articles lost or found, of anything
+indeed of general interest to the community. It was in this way that as
+St. Martin's day, November 11th, approached the people were reminded of
+the falling due of the _cens et rentes_. The meaning of the two terms is
+somewhat obscure. The _cens_ was a trifling payment by the _censitaire_
+in recognition of the seigneur's position and rights as landowner; while
+the _rentes_ represented a real rental based in some degree on the
+supposed value of the land. But the rate was usually conventional and
+very small. In early Canada the river was the highway and upon it
+therefore every settler desired to have a frontage. There was, also,
+greater safety from Indian attacks in having the houses close together
+at the front of the farms. So these became long narrow strips, with the
+houses built so close together that the country side often seems like a
+continuous village. The habitant paid usually in _cens et rentes_ twenty
+sols (about twenty cents) for each arpent (192 feet) of frontage;
+instead of cash usually he might pay in kind--a live capon or a small
+measure (demi-minot) of grain for each arpent. He paid also about one
+cent of rent for each superficial acre. Thus for a farm of 100 acres,
+with two arpents of frontage, a habitant might pay $1.00 in cash and two
+capons. If each of 400 such tenants paid for their frontage in capons,
+800 of these fowls would he brought to the seigneur's barn-yard each
+autumn!
+
+Though payment was due on November 11th, the habitants usually waited
+for the first winter days when the sleighing had become good. In many of
+the sleighs, hastening with the merry sound of bells over the wintry
+roads to the manor house, there would be one or two captive capons or a
+bag or two of grain. M. de Gaspe has described how on such an occasion
+the seigneur, or some member of his family for him, would be found by
+the tenant "seated majestically in a large arm chair, near a table
+covered with green baize cloth." Here he received the payments, or in
+many cases only excuses for non-payment. The scene outside was often
+animated, for the fowls brought in payment of the rent, with legs tied
+but throats free, would not bear their captivity in silence. Rent day
+was a festal occasion, but the great day in the year at the manor house
+was New Year's Day. Then the people came to offer their respects to the
+seigneur and Nairne speaks of the prodigious consumption of whiskey and
+cakes at such a time. The seigneur was usually god-father to the
+first-born of the children of his tenants. It is a pretty custom among
+French Canadians for the children to go on New Year's Day, which is a
+great festival, to the chamber of their parents in the early morning and
+kneel before the bed for their benediction. To the seigneur as to a
+parent came on this day his god-children and we have it from M. de
+Gaspe, an eye witness, that on one occasion he saw no less than one
+hundred of these come to call upon the seigneur at the manor house! In
+the old days the people came also on the first day of May to plant the
+May-pole before his door and to dance round it.
+
+Some of the seigneurs were as poor as their own _censitaires_ and, like
+them, toiled with their hands. But usually there was a social gulf
+between the cottage and the manor house. Even the Church marked this.
+The seigneur had the right to a special pew; he was censed first; he
+received the wafer first at the communion; he took precedence in
+processions, and was specially recommended from the pulpit to the
+prayers of the congregation. Caldwell, who was seigneur of Lauzon
+opposite Quebec, used to drive through his great seigniory in state,
+half reclining on the cushions of his carriage and with a numerous
+following. If on a long drive he stopped at a farm house, even for the
+light refreshment of a drink of milk, he never paid the habitant with
+anything less than a gold coin. I once asked a habitant, who remembered
+the old days, whether the seigneur really was such a very great man in
+the village. He replied, with something like awe in his voice,
+"_Monsieur, il etait le roi, l'empereur, du village_."
+
+The ministrations of the manor house were often patriarchical and
+beneficent; the seigneur's wife was like the squire's wife in an English
+village. In time this relation aroused resentment. Some villager's son
+with a taste for business or letters made his way in the world, got into
+touch with more advanced thought, and when he came back to the village
+was not so willing as formerly to touch his hat to the seigneur and
+accept an inferior social status as a matter of course. M. de Gaspe
+tells how he often accompanied Madame Tache, in her own right
+co-seigneuress of Kamouraska, opposite Malbaie, in her visits to the
+people on the seigniory. She took alms to the poor, and wine, cordials,
+delicacies to the sick and convalescent. "She reigned as sovereign in
+the seigniory," he says, "by the very tender ties of love and of
+gratitude." When she left the village church after mass on Sunday the
+habitants, most of whom drove to church in their own vehicles, would
+wait respectfully for her to start and then follow her in a long
+procession, none of them venturing to pass her on the road. At the point
+where she turned from the high-way up the avenue leading to the manor
+house, each habitant, as he passed, would raise his hat, although only
+her back was in view disappearing in the direction of the house.
+
+But early in the 19th century this spirit was changing:
+
+     One day I was myself witness, says M. de Gaspe, of a violation of
+     this universal deference. It was St. Louis's day, the festival of
+     the parish of Kamouraska. As usual Madame Tache, at the close of
+     mass, was leading the long escort of her _censitaires_, when a
+     young man, excited by the frequent libations of which in the
+     country many are accustomed to partake during the parish fetes,--a
+     young man, I say, breaking from the procession passed the carriage
+     of the seigneuress as fast as his horse would go. Madame Tache
+     stopped her carriage and turning round towards those who followed
+     her cried in a loud voice:
+
+     "What insolent person is this who has passed before me?"
+
+     An old man went up to her, hat in hand, and said with tears in his
+     voice:
+
+     "Madame, it is my son who unfortunately is tipsy, but be sure that
+     I shall bring him to make his apologies and meanwhile I beg you to
+     accept mine for his boorishness."
+
+     I ought to add that the whole parish spoke with indignation of the
+     conduct of the young man. The delinquent had committed a double
+     offence. He had been rude to their benefactress, and besides,
+     violating a French Canadian custom, he had passed a carriage
+     without asking permission.[33]
+
+This must have been before 1813 for in that year this good Madame Tache
+died: even so early was youth restive under the old traditions of
+deference and subordination. Already some even of the seigneurs were
+saying that the system retarded settlement. It would have suited the
+seigneurs to have their holdings converted into freehold, for then they
+could have held the unsettled land as their own property instead of
+being under obligation to grant it for a nominal rental to
+_censitaires_. But to make this conversion would have been too kind to
+the seigneurs; so the matter dragged on for a long time.
+
+The grievances of the habitant against the seigneurs were numerous, some
+of them real, some fanciful. It seemed anomalous that, in a British
+colony in the nineteenth century, there should be men holding great
+tracts of land with rights over their tenants, as some authors have
+seriously claimed, extending from the power of trying them for petty
+offences to that of inflicting the death penalty. This last right was,
+in any case, only nominal and was never exercised by any seigneur in
+Canada; but even the claim that it existed shows how high were the
+authority and privilege of the seigneur. A right like the _corvee_ had a
+sinister meaning. One of the greatest hardships of the old regime, in
+France it meant that, on demand, the peasant must drop his own work to
+join in making highways, in carrying from one place to another the
+effects of a regiment, and other unwelcome tasks, all without pay. In
+Canada it was milder. The seigneur levied a _corvee_ of so many days'
+labour, which he employed on the useful task of improving the highway.
+Some seigneurs required that at the times they chose, the habitants
+should work for them a certain number of days, usually six, in each
+year. They could even make the habitants work without pay at building a
+manor house; a few of the massive stone mansions still fairly numerous
+in the Province of Quebec were constructed by such labour. Not
+unnaturally the habitant came to feel it odious and humiliating to be
+obliged thus to give his labour at another's order.
+
+The seigneuries too were often broken up. In Canada there is no law of
+primogeniture and, at a seigneur's death, the land went to daughters as
+well as to sons. Few of the old seigniorial families remained on their
+original estates. In time those who held the property came to think that
+a rental of about a cent an acre was not enough. In the days of French
+rule they could not have increased it; but the old custom, they claimed,
+did not apply under British sovereignty. So these charges were often
+increased; in time instead of a penny the habitant had to pay
+three-pence, six-pence, and even eight-pence, an acre; the seigneurs, as
+a judge put it, showed an excellent knowledge of arithmetical
+progression. Thus the _cens et rentes_ began to bring in a real income.
+So did the _lods et ventes_, the tax of one-twelfth of the price of
+whatever land the habitant sold. In early days land was rarely sold. But
+when towns and villages had grown up on seigniorial estates, a good deal
+of buying and selling took place and there stood always the seigneur
+demanding in every transaction his share of the selling price. If the
+land was sold two or three times in a year, as might well happen, each
+time the seigneur got his share of one-twelfth. If the occupier had
+built on the land a house at his own cost, none the less did the
+seigneur, who had done nothing, get his large percentage on the selling
+value of these improvements. This was a real grievance. To avoid paying
+the seigneur's claim a price, lower than that really paid, was sometimes
+named in the deed, and this led to perjury. To protect themselves the
+seigneur used his _droit de retrait_ the right for forty days of himself
+taking the property at the price named. This involved vexation and delay
+and increased discontent. Moreover the seigneur's right to _lods et
+ventes_ stood in the way of a ready transfer of property between members
+of the same family.
+
+There were other causes of discontent. The seigneur had the _droit de
+banalite_, the banal rights, under which in France the habitant must use
+the seigneur's wine-press, his oven and his mill. In Canada no wine was
+made, so the seigneur's winepress did not exist. Some attempts were made
+to force the habitant to bake his bread in the seigneur's oven but what
+would do in a compact French village, where fuel was scarce, became
+absurd in Canada; the picture is ludicrous of a habitant carrying a
+dozen miles, over rough roads, to the seigneur's oven, unbaked dough
+which might be hard frozen _en route_. Moreover new inventions made
+ovens common and cheap so that the habitant could afford to have his
+own. The seigneur's oven thus caused no grievance. Not so however the
+seigneur's mill. In the early days when the seigneur had the sole right
+to build a mill this became for him, in truth, a duty sometimes
+burdensome; for, whether it would pay or not, the government forced him
+to build a mill or else abandon the right. But in time the mill proved
+profitable and to it the peasant must bring his wheat. There might be a
+good mill near his house, while the seigneur's mill might be a dozen
+miles away and even then might give poor service; yet to the seigneur's
+mill he must go. If it was a wind-mill, nature, by denying wind, might
+cause a long delay before the flour should be ready. As time went on,
+some seigneurs claimed or reserved a monopoly in regard to all mills;
+grist mills, saw mills, carding mills, factories of every kind. Canada
+in time exported flour, but the seigneur's rights stood in the way of
+the free grinding of the wheat for this trade. The habitant might have
+on his land an excellent mill site with water power convenient, but he
+could not use it without the seigneur's consent. More than this the
+seigneur often reserved the right to take such a site to the extent of
+six arpents for his own use without any compensation to the habitant.
+
+In many cases the seigneur might freely cut timber on the habitant's
+land to erect buildings for public use,--church, presbytery, mill, and
+even a manor house. The rights to base metals on the property he also
+retained. The eleventh fish caught in the rivers was his. He might
+change the course of streams or rivers for manufacturing purposes; he
+alone could establish a ferry; his will determined where roads should be
+opened. Some seigneurs were even able to force villages and towns to pay
+a bonus for the right to carry on the ordinary business of buying and
+selling. So it turned out that if the habitant's crop failed he had
+little chance to do anything else without the seigneur's consent; he is,
+says the report of a Commission of Enquiry in 1843, "kept in a perpetual
+state of feebleness and dependence. He can never escape from the tie
+that forever binds to the soil him and his progeny; a cultivator he is
+born, a mere cultivator he is doomed to die." No doubt this plaint is
+pitched in a rather high key. But in time the burden of grievances was
+generally felt and then the seigniorial system was doomed.
+
+In the days of the last John Nairne political agitation became an old
+story at Malbaie. We get echoes of meetings held in the village to
+support the cause of the idol of habitant radicalism, Louis Joseph
+Papineau; in 1836 ninety-two resolutions drawn up by him and attacking
+the whole system of government in Canada appear to have met with
+clamorous approval from the assembled villagers. Papineau was himself a
+seigneur and did not assail the system. But after his unsuccessful
+rebellion in 1837-38 the attack on the seigneurs intensified. We know
+little of what happened at Malbaie but the end came suddenly. In 1854,
+after an election fought largely on this issue, the Parliament of Canada
+swept away the seigniorial system. The habitants then became tenants
+paying as rent the old _cens et rentes_. They could not be disturbed as
+long as this trifling rent was paid. Moreover at any time they might
+become simple freeholders by paying to the seigneur a sum of money
+representing their annual rent capitalized on a six per cent, basis. The
+term seigneur is still used but is now a mere honorary title. No longer
+does his position give him the authority of a magistrate; no longer must
+the habitants grind their corn at his mill; no longer can he claim _lods
+et ventes_ when land is sold. For the loss of these rights he was paid
+compensation out of the public treasury.[34]
+
+With the abolition of the seigniorial system ends too the story of the
+Nairne family. In 1861, exactly one hundred years after Colonel Nairne
+first visited Malbaie, died his grandson and the last of his
+descendants, John McNicol Nairne, son of Colonel Nairne's eldest
+daughter Magdalen. This last Nairne left the property absolutely to his
+widow, tied only by the condition that it was to go to her male issue if
+she had such, even by a second marriage. In 1884, she too died
+childless, and bequeathed the property to an old friend, both of herself
+and of her husband, Mr. W.E. Duggan. Had Mr. Duggan not survived Mrs.
+Nairne the property was to go to St. Matthew's Church, Quebec. Mr.
+Duggan occupied it, until his death in 1898, when it passed by will to
+his half-brother, Mr. E.J. Duggan, the present seigneur.[35]
+
+It is a sad story this of the extinction of a family. Both Thomas Nairne
+and his father were buried at first in the Protestant cemetery at
+Quebec. But not there permanently were they to lie, and many years ago
+they found a resting-place in a new tomb in Mount Hermon Cemetery. On a
+lovely autumn day in 1907 I made my way in Quebec to the spot where the
+Nairnes are interred. In the fresh cool air it was a pleasure to walk
+briskly the three miles of the St. Louis road to the cemetery. One
+crossed the battle field of the Plains of Abraham where, within a few
+months, a century and a half ago, Britain and France grappled in deadly
+strife. The elder Nairne saw that field with its harvest of dead on
+September 13th, 1759, and, in the following April, he saw its snow
+stained with the blood of brave men who fell in Murray's battle with
+Levis. In May, 1776, he marched across it in victorious pursuit of the
+fleeing American army. At Mount Hermon I readily found the Nairne tomb.
+It lies on the slope of the hill towards the river. Through the noble
+trees gleamed the mighty tide of the St. Lawrence. A great pine tree
+stands near the block of granite that marks the Nairne graves and a
+gentle breeze through its countless needles caused that mysterious
+sighing which is perhaps nature's softest and saddest note. One's
+thoughts went back to the brave old Colonel who wrought so well and had
+such high hopes for his posterity to the soldier son, remembered here,
+who died in far distant India; and to the other soldier son who fell in
+Canada upon the field of battle. He was the last male heir of his line.
+The name and the family are now well-nigh forgotten. The inscriptions on
+the tomb, reared by a friend, connected with the Nairnes by ties of
+friendship only, not of blood, are themselves the memorial of the rise
+and extinction of a Canadian family.[36]
+
+[Footnote 25: He must have been a Roman Catholic for he was buried in
+the churchyard at Murray Bay.]
+
+[Footnote 26: We have seen (_ante_ p. 49) how at Malbaie Colonel Nairne
+expected that a Protestant missionary would soon make the community
+Protestant.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Professor Barrett Wendell, France of To-day, New York,
+1907.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Roy, Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, IV: 169, 170.]
+
+[Footnote 29: The Abbe H.R. Casgrain: _Une Paroisse Canadienne au XVII.
+Siecle_. _Oeuvres_, Vol. I, pp. 483 _sqq._]
+
+[Footnote 30: Roy, La Seigneurie de Lauzon, IV: 247.]
+
+[Footnote 31: M. Leon Gerin in "L'Habitant de Saint-Justin", p. 202.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Roy, La Seigneurie de Lauzon IV: 245.]
+
+[Footnote 33: De Gaspe, _Memoires_, p. 533, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Mr. Nairne claimed as compensation for his _lods et
+ventes_ L4,560, 9s. 6d., (Halifax currency) and for the banal rights
+L3,400. He probably received considerably less. More than 400 dwellers
+in the seigniory still pay the annual _cens et rentes_.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Malcolm Fraser's seigniory, Mount Murray, remained
+somewhat longer in the family of its original owner. On Fraser's death
+in 1815 his eldest son William, who had become a medical practitioner
+and a Roman Catholic, succeeded. He died without issue in 1830 and his
+brother, John Malcolm Fraser, then fell heir to the seigniory. When he
+died in 1860 the property passed by will to his two daughters, both
+married to British officers. The elder, Mrs. Reeve, succeeded to the
+manor house. The younger, Mrs. Higham, soon sold her share to the Cimon
+family who became prominent in the district and one of whose members sat
+in Parliament at Ottawa on the Conservative side. Mrs. Reeve died in
+1879 leaving the use of the property to her husband, Colonel Reeve, for
+his life. When he died in 1888, his son Mr. John Fraser Reeve, Malcolm
+Fraser's great-grandson, became seigneur. In 1902 he sold the property
+to the present seigneur, Mr. George T. Bonner, of New York, a Canadian
+by birth. Though there are numerous living descendants of Malcolm
+Fraser, Murray Bay knows them no more.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Sacred to the memory of Lieutenant Colonel John Nairne,
+First Seigneur of Murray Bay. This Gallant Officer during 38 years
+distinguished himself as an able and brave Soldier. For simplicity of
+manners as a man, for Intrepidity and humanity as a Soldier, and for the
+virtues of a Gentleman, his memory will long be respected and cherished.
+Born in Scotland, March 1, 1731. Died at Quebec, July 14, 1802.
+
+Lieutenant Colonel Nairne first entered the Dutch Service where he
+belonged to that distinguished Corps, the Scotch Brigade. He afterwards
+entered the British Service where under Wolfe he was present at the
+taking of Louisbourg and Quebec. He also served under Murray and
+Carleton and distinguished himself in a most gallant manner when Quebec
+was attacked by the Americans in the years 1775 and 1776.
+
+And of his eldest son, Lieutenant John Nairne of the 19th Regiment of
+Foot, who fell a victim to the climate of India when returning with the
+victorious troops from the capture of Seringapatam in the 21st year of
+his age; also of his youngest son, Captain Thomas Nairne, of the 49th
+Regiment of Foot who bravely fell at the head of his Company in the
+Battle at Chrysler's Farm in Upper Canada November 11, 1813, aged 26
+years.
+
+Also of John Leslie Nairne, great grandson of Colonel Nairne, born July
+23, 1842, died March 18, 1845; and of John Nairne, Esq., Grandson of
+Colonel Nairne, born at Murray Bay, March 22nd, 1808, died at Quebec
+June 8, 1861; and of his Widow, Maria Katherine Leslie, died at Quebec,
+August 25, 1884, deeply regretted by her friends and by the poor of whom
+she was the constant benefactress.
+
+This monument is erected in affectionate remembrance of much kindness by
+one who was privileged to enjoy their friendship during the best part of
+his life.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE COMING OF THE PLEASURE SEEKERS
+
+     Pleasure seeking at Murray Bay.--A fisherman's experience in
+     1830.--New visitors.--Fishing in a mountain lake.--Camp life.--The
+     Upper Murray.--Canoeing.--Running the rapids.--Walks and
+     drives.--Golf.--A rainy day.--The habitant and his visitors.
+
+
+In the Middle Ages mankind in pursuit of change of air and scene and of
+bodily and spiritual health went on pilgrimage to some famous shrine; in
+modern times dwellers in cities, in a similar pursuit, go in summer to
+some beautiful spot by sea, or lake, or mountain. To many these places
+then become as sacred as was the saint's shrine of an earlier age. Busy
+men have leisure there to be idle, to read, to enjoy companionship, to
+pursue wholesome pleasures. Such a spot has Murray Bay become to many.
+Their intrusion was not looked upon with favour by those who wished to
+preserve the old simplicity, but it could not be resisted. More than a
+hundred years ago Colonel Nairne and Colonel Fraser had parties of
+guests in the summer that must have made the two manor houses lively
+enough. The beauty of the place, its coolness when Quebec and Montreal
+suffered from sweltering heat in the short Canadian summer, the
+simplicity and charm of its life, proved alluring. There was also
+excellent sport. Salmon and trout abounded. Though time has brought
+changes, in some seasons the salmon fishing is still excellent and, in
+all the world, probably, there is no better trout fishing than in the
+upper waters of the Murray and in some of the lakes.
+
+Thus it happened that the earliest annals of pleasure seeking at Murray
+Bay relate to fishing. It is at least possible that more than two
+hundred years ago the Sieur de Comporte tried his fortune as a fisherman
+in the lake that bears his name. A hundred and fifty years ago, as we
+have seen, Captain Nairne and his guest Gilchrist had such excellent
+salmon fishing that Gilchrist thought this sport alone worth a trip
+across the Atlantic. Many other fishing expeditions to Malbaie there
+must have been and, fortunately, a detailed narrative of one of them,
+made in 1830, has been preserved. The fishermen were Major Wingfield and
+Dr. Henry--attached to the 66th regiment at Montreal.
+
+They went by steamer from Montreal to Quebec and an American General on
+board jeered at them for travelling three hundred miles to catch fish
+which they could buy in the market at their door! When they reached
+Quebec they found no steamer for Murray Bay,--hardly strange as then the
+steamboat was comparatively new. Three days they waited at Quebec until
+at length they bargained with the captain of a coasting schooner bound
+for Kamouraska, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, to land them at
+Malbaie. The weather was stormy, the ship nearly foundered, and the
+eighty miles of the journey occupied no less than four days and nights.
+The fishermen had brought with them a quarter of cold lamb, a loaf, and
+a bottle of wine, but, before the journey was over, sheer hunger drove
+them to the ship's salt pork and to sausages stuffed with garlic. Rather
+than take refuge below among "thirty or forty dirty habitants from
+Kamouraska" they stuck to the deck and encamped under the great sail,
+but the rain fell so heavily that they could not even keep their cigars
+alight. At length "with beards like Jews," cold, wet, half-starved and
+miserable, they reached their destination. As they landed at Murray Bay
+they saw a salmon floundering in a net, bought it, and carried it with
+them to the house of a man named Chaperon where they had engaged
+lodgings. Here, says Dr. Henry, the sensation of being clean and
+comfortable in their host's "pleasant parlour" was delicious. The tea,
+the toast, the dainty prints of fresh butter were all exquisite "after
+rancid pork and garlic," and he declares that they ate for two hours and
+consumed "some half gallon of thick cream and half a bushel of new laid
+eggs." Under their window bloomed a rose bush in full flower. Murray Bay
+was at its best.
+
+On Monday morning, July 5th, 1830, the two fishermen engaged a
+_caleche_, and a boy named Louis Panet drove them up the Murray River.
+The present village church was already standing, "a respectable church,"
+says Dr. Henry, "with its long roof and glittering spire and a tall elm
+or two"; the elms, alas, have disappeared and now there are only
+willows. A wooden bridge crossed the Murray and its large abutments
+loaded with great boulders told of formidable spring floods sweeping
+down the valley. A recent "eboulement" or land slide had blocked the
+road along the river and men were still busy clearing away the rubbish.
+Eight or ten miles up the river at the fall known as the Chute, still a
+favourite spot for salmon fishing, they had magnificent sport. One Jean
+Gros, in a crazy canoe, took them to the best places for casting the
+fly. The first salmon weighed twenty-five pounds and they had to play it
+for three-quarters of an hour. That evening when they returned to M.
+Chaperon's, to feast once more, they had five salmon weighing in all one
+hundred and five pounds and forty-five sea trout averaging three pounds
+each. No wonder Gilchrist has said such fishing was worth a trip across
+the Atlantic! The blot on the day's enjoyment was that in the July
+weather they were pestered with flies.
+
+Excellent sport continued from day to day. Once Jean Gros lost his hold
+of the pole by which he controlled the canoe and it drifted helplessly
+towards a rapid, Henry all the time playing a salmon. The man was
+alarmed and knelt to mumble prayers but Henry caught up a board thrown
+from the shore, gave him a whack with it on the back and shouted:
+"_Ramez! Sacre! Ramez!_" The effect was electrical. The old fellow
+seized the board, paddled with it like mad, steered down the rapid, and
+Henry finally landed his salmon. Day after day the two fishermen drove
+up to the Chute to fish until, after a fortnight, the river fell and the
+salmon ceased to rise; then they went down in a large boat to Riviere
+Noire, said never yet to have been fished with a rod, slept at night on
+the sandy beach, but had no luck. Henry tells of an annoyance at Malbaie
+that still continues; mongrel dogs ran after their _caleche_; sometimes
+one would try to seize the horse by the nose and nearly cause a
+run-away. Each cur pursued the vehicle and barked himself hoarse, and
+then, when he retired, his neighbour would take up the task. At length,
+after this experience had been frequently renewed, they decided to
+retaliate. One black shaggy beast had made himself specially obnoxious;
+with his thick wooly fur he did not mind in the least being struck by
+the whip. So one day Dr. Henry got ready the salmon gaff and, as the
+brute darted out at them, skilfully hooked him by the side. The driver
+whipped up his horse, which seemed to enjoy the punishment of his
+enemy, and the vehicle went tearing along the road, the dog yelling
+hideously as he was dragged by the hook. The people ran to the doors
+holding up their hands in astonishment. The Doctor soon shook off the
+dog and he trotted home little the worse. Next day when he saw the
+fisherman's caleche coming he limped into the house "as mute as a fish"
+with his tail between his legs.
+
+Dr. Henry thought Murray Bay an earthly paradise. The people in this
+"secluded valley" were the most virtuous he had ever seen. Flagrant
+crime was unknown,--doors were never locked at night. There was no need
+of temperance reform; "whole families pass their lives without any
+individual ever having tasted intoxicating fluids." The devout people,
+he says, had social family worship, morning and evening; the families
+were huge, fifteen to twenty children being not uncommon; when a young
+couple married the relations united to build a house for them; and so
+on. Unfortunately we know from other sources that conditions were not as
+idyllic at Murray Bay as Dr. Henry describes; but it was, no doubt, a
+simple and virtuous community.
+
+In time its isolation was to disappear before invaders like Dr. Henry,
+in pursuit of pleasure. So gradual was the change that we hardly know
+when it came. By 1850 there was a little summer colony mostly from
+Quebec and Montreal. Soon a few came from points more distant. As means
+of transport on the St. Lawrence improved a great many travellers passed
+Murray Bay on their way to the Saguenay. Tadousac, at its mouth, was
+already well known and an occasional stray visitor stopped off at Murray
+Bay to see what it was like. The accommodation offered was rude enough,
+no doubt, but perhaps less rude than one might suppose. At Pointe au Pic
+stood a substantial stone house. This was turned into a hotel and known
+some fifty years ago as Duberger's house. There were besides a few other
+houses for summer visitors. Thus, long ago, was there tolerable comfort
+at Murray Bay. In any case visitors soon found that the place had
+abundant compensations even for discomfort. They came and came again.
+Friends came to visit them and they too learned to love the spot. Some
+Americans from New York chanced to find it out and others of their
+countrymen followed; by 1885 already well established was the now
+dominant American colony.
+
+The influx has limited and restricted but has not destroyed the old
+diversion of fishing. There are still many hundreds of lakes in the
+neighbourhood on which no fisherman has ever yet cast a fly. But nearly
+all the good spots within easy range are now leased or owned by private
+persons and clubs; no longer may the transient tourist fish almost where
+he pleases. All the better for this restriction is the quality of the
+fishing. What magnificent sport there is in some of those tiny lakes on
+the mountain side and what glorious views as one drives thither! To
+reach Lac a Comporte, for instance, one crosses the brawling Murray,
+drives up its left bank for a mile or so and then heads straight up the
+mountain side. Turning back one can see the silver gleam of the small
+river winding through its narrow valley until lost in the enveloping
+mountains. From points still higher one looks northwestward upon the
+mountain crests worn round ages ago, some of them probably never yet
+trodden by the foot of man. Most are wooded to the top but there are
+bare crags, a glowing purple sometimes in the afternoon light; but the
+prevailing tone is the deep, deep blue, the richest surely that nature
+can show anywhere. Along the road where we are driving stretch the
+houses of the habitants and sometimes, to survey the passing strangers,
+the whole family stands on the rude door-step. They rarely fail in a
+courteous greeting, with a touch still of the manners of France.
+
+Two or three days spent on one of these wild mountain lakes, such as Lac
+a Comporte, is as pleasant an experience as any one can have. The walk
+is beautiful from the last cottage where the vehicles are left and the
+two or three men are secured who shoulder the packs with the necessary
+provisions. At first the forest path is hewn broadly in a straight line
+but it soon narrows to a trail winding up the mountain side. The way is
+rough; one must clamber over occasional boulders and turn aside to avoid
+fallen trees. The white stems of birches are conspicuous in the forest
+thicket. After a stiff climb we have passed over the shoulder of the
+mountain; the path is now trending downward and at length through the
+arch of green over the pathway one catches the gleam of the lake. The
+pace quickens and in a few minutes we stand upon the shore of a lovely
+little sheet of water with a shore line perhaps three miles long, lying
+in the mountain hollow. Evening is near and, half an hour later, each
+fisherman is in a boat paddled softly by a habitant companion. In a
+thousand places the calm water is disturbed by the trout feeding busily;
+they often throw themselves quite clear of the water and, when the sport
+has well begun, at a single cast one occasionally takes a trout on each
+of his three flies. Before it is dark the whole circuit of the lake has
+been made and a goodly basket of trout is the result.
+
+A camp at evening is always delightful. The tired fishermen lie by the
+cheery fire while the men prepare the evening meal, to consist chiefly
+of the trout just caught. They have the vivacity and readiness of their
+race: rough habitants though they are their courtesy is inborn,
+inalienable. After the meal is over silence often falls on the group of
+three or four by the fire. Every one is tired and at barely nine o'clock
+it is time for bed. Before each of the two or three small tents standing
+some distance apart by the water's edge the men have built a blazing
+fire which throws its light far out over the tiny lake. All round rise
+the mountains, now dark and sombre; a sharp wind is blowing and as one
+stands alone looking out over the water there comes a sense of chill;
+for a moment the mountain solitude seems remote, melancholy and
+friendless: with something like a shiver one turns to the cheerful fire
+before the tent. Here blankets are spread on sweet scented boughs of
+_sapin_; the bed is hard, but not too hard for a tired man and one
+quickly falls asleep.
+
+Other fishing expeditions at Murray Bay take one farther afield and into
+more varied scenes. In its upper stretches, three thousand feet above
+the sea, the Murray River flows through a level country before it
+plunges into mountain fastnesses, almost impregnable in summer, for a
+long and troubled detour, to emerge at length into this last valley. To
+reach this flat upland one must drive through a beautiful mountain pass
+with great heights towering on either side of the winding roadway. In
+the upper river the fishing is still unsurpassed. Of small trout there
+are vast numbers, excellent for the table, but in the deep pools are
+also huge trout, ranging in weight from three to eight pounds. The
+surrounding country is open; there are only clumps of scrubby timber;
+and the plain is covered with deep moss readily beaten into a hard path
+upon which the foot treads silently. Here the bears come to feed upon
+the berries and the Canadians have called the plain prettily the "Jardin
+des Ours." Other sport than trout fishing there is. In season the
+caribou and the moose are abundant--but that is a sportsman's tale by
+itself.
+
+Fishing and hunting are not the sole diversions. As long ago as in 1811,
+when young Captain Nairne came here fresh from Europe, the boating
+attracted him and he spent much time on the bay and the river. No doubt
+the young seigneur was soon skilful in the art of paddling a canoe. In
+those days there were real Indians and no other canoes than those of
+birch bark; now these have well-nigh disappeared and, indeed, few
+visitors at Murray Bay, use any kind of a canoe. The pastime is thought
+too dangerous for all but the initiated. Amid these mountains, winds
+rise quickly and beat up a sea, and it is well to keep near the shore.
+The rising tide sweeps like a mill race over the bar at the mouth of the
+bay and when one has passed out to the great river it is like being
+afloat on the open sea. On perfectly calm days we may go far out to be
+swept up with the tide; but it is both safer and pleasanter to glide
+along close to shore under the shadow of the cliffs, around sharp
+corners, dodging in and out among boulders submerged, or now being
+submerged, by the rising tide. The successive sandy beaches are each
+backed by high cliffs. The river is a shining, spangled, surface of
+light blue and white, reflecting the sky sprinkled with fleecy clouds.
+Here a chattering stream, the Petit Ruisseau, falls over white rocks to
+lose itself in the sand. Far ahead now one can see the Church of Ste.
+Irenee perched on a level table-land, two or three hundred feet above
+the river. Soon a dark green line on the high birch-clad shore marks the
+gorge by which the Grand Ruisseau flows to the St. Lawrence. At its
+mouth is a good place to land and make tea. The canoes are drawn up on a
+sandy beach under the shadow of cliffs, a medley of red and grey and
+brown. Near by, the Grand Ruisseau, a fair sized brook, babbles in its
+bed crowded with great boulders. A wild path, part of it including steps
+from rock to rock in the bed of the stream itself, leads to a lovely
+little cascade where, in white foam, the water falls into a deep dark
+pool. One hurries to visit it and then, with the evening shadows falling
+and the narrow gorge becoming sombre, it is wise to hasten back. As one
+steps out from the wooded path to the shore of the great river the scene
+is enchanting. The river's shining surface is perfectly smooth. Far
+across it is a dark-blue serried line of mountains. Houses, twenty miles
+distant, stand out white in the last light of the sun. From the
+tin-covered spire of a church far away, the flash of the rays comes back
+like the glow of fire. Standing in shadow we look out on a realm of
+light:
+
+    "As when the sun prepared for rest
+    Hath gained the precincts of the West,
+    Though his departing radiance fail
+    To illuminate the hollow vale,
+    A lingering light he fondly throws
+    On the fair hills, where first he rose."
+
+The shore is strangely silent; one hears only the occasional puffing of
+the white whale or the sad cry of the loon.
+
+A thrilling diversion is that of running the rapids in the Murray River.
+The canoe is sent up by _charette_ and after luncheon it is a walk or
+drive of eight or nine miles up the river to the starting point--a deep,
+dark-brown pool, which soon narrows into a swift rapid, the worst in all
+the stretches to the river's mouth. Formerly a procession of half a
+dozen canoes would go through the rapid with light hearts, but, long
+ago, when the river was very high, a canoe upset here and one of its
+occupants was never seen alive again. As one paddles out into the pool
+and is drawn into the dark current moving silently and swiftly to the
+rapid the heart certainly beats a little faster. The water's surface is
+an inclined plane as it flows over the ledge of rock. Straight ahead the
+current breaks on a huge black rock in a cloud of white foam. One must
+sweep off to the right, with the great volume of the water, and need
+catch only a little spray in swinging safely past the danger point.
+Then, in the waves caused by the current, before the canoe is quite
+turned "head-on" a wave may curl over the bow and leave the occupants
+kneeling in half an inch of water. In such a case it is wise to land and
+empty the canoe. In the next rapid, a tangled maze, the water is shallow
+and skill is required to wind in and out among the rocks and find water
+enough to keep afloat. Then the canoe slips over a ledge with plenty of
+water and the only care is to curve sharply to the left with the current
+before it strikes the bank straight ahead. The whole trip down the river
+occupies two glorious hours. There are short stretches of smooth and
+deep water; then the river contracts and pours with impetuous swiftness
+down a rocky slope. Sometimes trees stand close to the river; then there
+are bare grey banks of clay; then smiling fields sloping gently up to
+the high land; at times the canoe is in shade, then in the flashing
+sunlight. The river grows milder as it nears its mouth but the
+excitement does not end until we float under the bridge at Malbaie
+village and lift the canoe over the boom fastened there to catch logs in
+their descent. To paddle home in calm water across the bay seems tame
+after dancing for two hours on that tossing current.
+
+Of course there are many walks and drives--on the whole the most
+delightful of Malbaie's diversions. The favourite walk is to "Beulah." A
+generation that does not read its Bible as it should may need to be told
+that Beulah is the name of the land no more desolate in which the Lord
+delighteth; some Bible reader so named a spot on the mountain where one
+looks out far, far, afield in every direction for immense distances. It
+may be reached by a forest path straight up the mountain side from
+Pointe au Pic. We go through spruce and birch woods till we reach an
+opening where we look out northward on rounded mountain tops blue,
+silent, immeasurable, spreading away, one might almost fancy to the
+North Pole itself, so endless seems their mass. On beautiful turf
+through woods, then by a cow path across a bog, the path leads until a
+bare hill top lies full in view. This is Beulah. Standing there one
+seems to have the whole world at one's feet. When Petrarch had climbed
+Mount Ventoux, near Avignon, the first man for half a century to do so,
+the scene overwhelmed him; thoughts of the deeper meaning of life rose
+before his mind; he drew from his pocket St. Augustine and read: "Men go
+about to wonder at the height of the mountains and the mighty waves of
+the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers and the circuit of the ocean and
+the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not." I never
+stand on "Beulah" without thinking of this passage. Far away to the
+distant south shore, and up and down the river we can survey a stretch
+of eighty or ninety miles. We stand in the midst of a sea of mountains
+and look landward across deep valleys in all directions with the ranges
+rising tier on tier beyond.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLF LINKS AT MURRAY BAY]
+
+Among diversions for men golf, in spite of a certain reaction, has still
+the chief place. The club house is on the west shore of the bay. One
+plays out northward. The players zigzag here and there among curious
+earth mounds formed by the eddying swirl of water when the river's
+current held high carnival over these level stretches. Then the course
+leads up to the higher slope and mounts steadily, until, at the farthest
+hole, a considerable height has been reached. As one turns back towards
+the river he faces a wonder scene of changing grey and blue and green
+and white. The smoke of passing steamers floats lazily in the air; they
+take the deep channel by the south shore and are a dozen miles away. It
+is usually a silent world that one looks out upon; but when there is a
+north-east wind great green waves come rolling in upon the sandy shore
+of the bay and fill the air with their undertone.
+
+Even the rainy days have their own pleasures. One is glad of its excuse
+to sit before a crackling fire of birch wood and read. When the rain has
+ceased and the sun comes out, looking across to Cap a l'Aigle and up
+the river valley one sees new beauties. The mist disperses slowly. First
+it leaves bare the rounded mountain tops; they stand out dark, massive,
+with bases shrouded still in fleecy white. When the sun grows strong,
+river and valley are soon clear again, though the outlines are still a
+little softened. Up over the sand and boulders of the bay comes the
+rising tide changing sombre brown to shining blue. It rushes noisily
+across the bar at the bay's mouth a few hundred yards away.
+
+The visitors to this beautiful scene gather year by year from places
+widely separated and form in this remote village a society singularly
+cosmopolitan. English, French, Americans, Canadians, all mingle here
+with leisure to meet and play together. For a time far away seems the
+hard world of competition. Rarely do newspapers arrive until at least
+the day after publication; the telegraph is used only under urgent
+necessity; as far as possible business is excluded. The cottages are
+spacious enough but quite simple, with rooms usually divided off only by
+boards of pine or spruce. Very little decoration makes them pretty.
+Gardening has a good many devotees; the long day of sunshine and in some
+seasons the abundant rain of this northern region help to make
+vegetation luxurious. If one drives he may take a _planche_--the
+convenient serviceable "buck-board,"--still unsurpassed for a country
+of hills and rough roads. But to me at least the _caleche_ is the more
+enjoyable. It comes here from old France, a two-wheeled vehicle, with
+the seat hung on stout leather straps reaching from front to back on
+each side of the wooden frame. It is not a vehicle for those sensitive
+to slight jars. The driver sits in a tiny seat in front and one is
+amazed at the agility with which even old men spring from this perch to
+walk up and down the steep hills. Their ponies are beautiful little
+animals, specially fitted by a long development for work in this hilly
+country. So well do they mount its heights that travellers repeat an
+unconfirmed tradition of their having been known to climb trees!
+
+It is not strange that in our happy summer days we acquire a deep
+affection for this northern region, its brilliant colouring, its crisp
+air. Not its least charm is in the cheerful and kindly people. One would
+not have them speak any other tongue than their French, preserving here
+archaic usages, with new words for new things, influenced of course by
+English, but still the beautiful language of an older France than the
+France of to-day. The people have their own tragedies. One sees pale
+women, over-worked. The physician's skill is too little sought; the
+country ranges are very remote; it is difficult and expensive to get
+medical aid; and there are deformed cripples who might have been made
+whole by skill applied in time. Consumption too is here a dread
+scourge, though against it a strenuous campaign has now begun. Many
+children are born but too many die. Still, most of the people live in
+comfort and they enjoy life--enjoy it probably much more than would an
+Anglo-Saxon community of the same type.
+
+We who are among them in the summer are citizens of another and an
+unknown world. New York and Chicago, Boston and Washington, Toronto and
+Montreal are to us realities with one or other of which, in some way,
+each of us is linked. To this simple people they are all merely that
+outer world whence come their fleeting visitors of summer, as out of the
+unknown come the migrant birds to pause and rest awhile. We bring with
+us substantial material benefits; but it is not clear that our moral
+influence is good. Leaving his farm the habitant brings to the village
+his horse and caleche to become a hired _charretier_. He often gets good
+fares but there is much idle waiting. Bad habits are formed and regular
+industry is discouraged. The cure finds Malbaie a difficult sphere. We
+alone get unmixed benefit from this fair scene, its days of glad
+serenity, and of almost solemn stillness, when even a bird's note is
+heard but rarely.
+
+Because all that concerns it interests us I have tried to put together
+from scattered fragments the story long forgotten of the past of
+Malbaie. In it there is abundance of the tragedy never remote from
+man's life: if the telling of the tale has been a pleasure it has proved
+not less a sad pleasure. But the story adds only a deeper meaning to our
+beautiful playground. After all it is man and his activities which give
+to nature's scenes their deepest interest; Quebec's chief charm is due
+to Wolfe and Montcalm, St. Helena's to Napoleon. The shaggy mountain
+crests which we view from our valley, the glistening blue river, the
+strong north-east wind which clouds the sky, turns the river to grey,
+and sprinkles its surface with white caps,--all are full for us of
+joyous beauty. But how much less of interest would there be did the
+white spire of the village church not peep out above the green trees up
+the bay to tell of man's weakness and his hopes! The story of the brave
+old soldier who peopled this valley, the pathetic tragedy of his
+successor's fate, add something here to the bloom of nature. It may be
+that the chief service of the chequered and half-forgotten past when it
+speaks is to show how vain and transient is all we think and
+plan,--"what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." But be it so.
+One would not miss from life this last joy of knowing what it really
+means.
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--For Jacques Cartier see his Voyages of 1535-36, in
+French (Ed. D'Avezac) Paris, 1863, translated into English (Ed. Baxter),
+New York, 1906. For Champlain see his Oeuvres (Ed. Laverdiere) Quebec,
+1870. Bourdon's Act of Faith and Homage is in Canadian Archives, Series
+M., Vol. I, p. 387. M. B. Sulte gives an account of the Carignan
+Regiment in the Proc. and Trans. of the Royal Society of Canada for
+1902. The account of the Sieur de Comporte in France is in Canadian
+Archives Series B., F., 213, p. 46; that of the auction sale of his
+property is in a MS. preserved at Murray Bay, while a record of the sale
+of Malbaie to the government is in Canadian Archives, Series M., Vol.
+LXV, p. 75. "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents" (Ed. Thwaites)
+(Cleveland, 1900), Vol. LXIX., pp. 80 _sqq._ contains the account of
+Malbaie in 1750. The authority for the burning of Malbaie in 1759 is Sir
+James M. Le Moine, "The Explorations of Jonathan Oldbuck," Quebec, 1889,
+based upon documents printed by "T.C." in _L'Abeille_, Nov. and Dec.,
+1859. Standard histories of the time such as Parkman's "Montcalm and
+Wolfe" give references to authorities for the events of the Seven Years'
+War.
+
+CHAPTER II.--The "Dictionary of National Biography" contains
+good articles on Lord Lovat, General Murray, &c., with references to
+authorities. Alexander Mackenzie's "History of the Frasers of Lovat"
+(Inverness, 1896) is the most recent detailed history of the family.
+MacLean, "An Historical Account of the Settlement of Scotch Highlanders
+in America," (Cleveland, 1900), contains valuable information. The
+portion of the chapter relating to Malbaie is based upon MSS. preserved
+there in the Murray Bay Manor House.
+
+CHAPTER III.--MS. material preserved at Murray Bay.
+
+CHAPTER IV.--Much original material relating to the Siege of
+Quebec in 1775-76 has been published by the Literary and Historical
+Society of Quebec. To be specially noted are the two volumes of
+documents on the "Blockade of Quebec in 1775-76 by the American
+Revolutionists, (Les Bostonnais)" Edited by F.C. Wuertele (Quebec, 1905
+and 1906). Two or three works have been written recently on the episode
+from the American point of view: Codman, "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec"
+(New York, 1901); Justin H. Smith, "Arnold's March from Cambridge to
+Quebec, a critical study, together with a reprint of Arnold's Journal,"
+(New York, 1903); Justin H. Smith, "Our Struggle for the Fourteenth
+Colony," 2 Vols. (New York, 1907). The story of Nairne's part in the war
+is based chiefly upon MS. material preserved at Murray Bay. The incident
+of the escaped prisoners is told in Nairne's reports; to Captain
+Matthews, Secretary to Haldimand, on the 14th of May, 1780, and to Major
+Le Maistre, on the 5th of June. These are at Murray Bay. A further
+report to Matthews on the 3rd of June is preserved at Ottawa; Canadian
+Archives, Series B, Vol. 73, p. 130. Mr. James Thompson was in charge of
+the building of the houses for the prisoners and tells of their escape
+in his MS. Diary.
+
+CHAPTER V. and CHAPTER VI. are based upon MSS. at
+Murray Bay.
+
+CHAPTER VII.--M. Leon Gerin has given an exhaustive analysis of
+the life of the habitant in "L'Habitant de Saint Justin," published in
+the Proc. and Trans, of the Royal Society of Canada for 1898 (Ottawa,
+1898). M. J.-E. Roy's "Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon," of which
+five volumes have been published (the last, Levis, Quebec, 1904) is the
+most detailed and authoritative account of a Canadian Seigniory. Vol. IV
+deals especially with the life of the habitants. Philippe Aubert de
+Gaspe's "Les anciens Canadiens," (Quebec, 1863), and his "Memoires"
+(Ottawa, 1866), contain much that is interesting on the life of a
+Canadian manor. So also do H.R. Casgrain's "Une Paroisse Canadienne au
+XVIIe Siecle," Oeuvres Completes, Vol. I (Montreal, 1884), and
+Parkman's "The Old Regime in Canada," (Boston, 1893). W. Bennett Munro's
+"The Seigniorial System in Canada," (New York, 1907), and his "Documents
+relating to Seigniorial Tenure in Canada," (Toronto, 1908), cover
+adequately the whole subject, and contain, in addition, abundant
+references to further authorities. The "Mandements des Eveques de
+Quebec," (Ed. Tetu and Gagnon), in six volumes, the first published in
+1887, contain much of interest in regard to the attitude of the Church
+to the people. The Second Part of "The Report of the Commission charged
+with revising and consolidating the General Statutes of the Province of
+Quebec," (Quebec, 1907), outlines the legal aspects of the school and
+Church systems. M. Andre Seigfried's "Le Canada, Les Deux Races,"
+(Paris, 1906), translated into English under the title of "The Race
+Question in Canada," (London, 1907), is a passionless analysis of
+religious and political thought in the Province of Quebec.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--The account of fishing at Murray Bay in 1830 is
+by Walter Henry; "Events of a Military Life," 2 Vols. (London, 1843).
+The chapter is based chiefly upon personal observation.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A (p. 31)
+
+THE JOURNAL OF MALCOM FRASER, FIRST SEIGNEUR OF MOUNT MURRAY,
+MALBAIE
+
+
+Malcolm Fraser was a young man of about twenty-six when he kept his
+diary of Wolfe's campaign against Quebec. It shows that already he had
+considerable powers of observation and very definite opinions. No doubt
+Fraser preserved a record of events in the campaign earlier than those
+of 1759; and it seems likely that the habit of recording his experiences
+would also have been kept up in later life. When, some time before 1860,
+were made the extracts from Fraser's Journal upon which the present
+notes are based, the original remained in the possession of his son the
+Hon. John Malcolm Fraser. The extracts were published by the Literary
+and Historical Society of Quebec in 1868 and have been used by Parkman
+and other historians, who usually, however, confuse Fraser with his
+commanding officer Colonel Simon Fraser. The extracts have long been out
+of print. I have not been able to trace the original MS. or any other
+Journal of Fraser, except a brief and quite valueless one preserved at
+Mount Murray. In one of his later letters, written fifty years after
+this Journal, Fraser speaks of his reluctance to handle the pen. But
+this did not keep him from writing in a beautiful round hand many long
+letters and making also copies for his own use.
+
+Early in the spring of 1859 a great British fleet had arrived in America
+from England and a squadron under Admiral Holmes had gone to New York to
+embark the Highlanders and other regiments wintering there to proceed
+to Quebec. The place of rendezvous was Louisbourg. Fraser's Journal
+begins on May 8th, 1759, with the departure of the regiments from Sandy
+Hook, the fleet consisting of about twenty-eight sail. The Highlanders
+had taken part in the siege and capture of Louisbourg in the previous
+year but had gone to New York for the winter. On May 17th the fleet
+sailed into Louisbourg Harbour after "a very agreeable and quick
+passage" of nine days. Patches of snow lay still on the ground and on
+the 29th of May Louisbourg Harbour was so full of ice that boats could
+not pass from the ships to shore. "I suppose," says Fraser, "the ice
+comes from the Gulf and river of St. Lawrence," regions he was in time
+to be very familiar with. He hears that a Lieutenant has shot himself on
+one of the men of war "for fear I suppose the French should do it. If he
+was wearied of life, he might soon get out of it in a more honourable
+way."
+
+On Monday, June 4th, after much bustle of preparation, the fleet set
+sail for Quebec. "I take it to consist of about 150 sail," says Fraser;
+so great was the array that to count the ships was almost impossible.
+They numbered in fact nearly 300, a huge force. On June 13th the fleet
+anchored at Bic in the St. Lawrence River. As they came up the river
+Fraser noted that the north shore was but little inhabited, a defect
+which, within a few years, he was himself to try to remedy in part. On
+June 23rd a whole division of the fleet anchored near Isle aux Coudres
+as Jacques Cartier had done more than two hundred years earlier.
+
+Arrived before Quebec the Highlanders were sent to Point Levi where, on
+July 1st, they pitched their tents. The next day Fraser's company
+established itself in the Church of St. Joseph there. The Canadians were
+carrying on guerilla warfare, firing on the British from the woods and
+Fraser was shocked at the horrid practise of scalping. He writes on July
+2nd:
+
+"While we were out, I observed several dead bodies on the road, not far
+from our Camp; they were all scalped and mangled in a shocking manner. I
+dare say no human creature but an Indian or Canadian could be guilty of
+such inhumanity as to insult a dead body."
+
+He was to see worse atrocities committed on his own side. On July 10th,
+still at Point Levi, he writes of the doings of a company of the
+colonial scouting force, the Rangers, commanded by Captain Gorham, who
+soon after desolated Malbaie.
+
+"A party of our Rangers having been sent out on this side of the river
+(the south), on the 9th they took one man prisoner and two boys (his
+children) having followed him a little way, making a great noise, were
+in a most inhuman manner murdered by those worse than savage Rangers,
+for fear, as they pretend, they should be discovered by the noise of the
+children. I wish this story was not fact, but I'm afraid there is little
+reason to doubt it:--the wretches having boasted of it on their return,
+tho' they now pretend to vindicate themselves by the necessity they were
+under; but, I believe, this barbarous action proceeded from that
+cowardice and barbarity which seems so natural to a native of America,
+whether of Indian or European extraction. In other instances, those
+Rangers have hitherto been of some use, and showed in general a better
+spirit than usual. They are for the most part raised in New England."
+
+On Friday, July 13th, the scene changed. Wolfe was planning an attack on
+Montcalm's camp and Fraser writes: "I was sent orderly officer to the
+Camp, at Montmorency, where I had an opportunity of seeing our own, and
+the French posts nigh the Fall. The river is fordable below the Fall at
+low water." On July 24th, 350 of the Highlanders under Col. Simon Fraser
+were sent down the river to bring in prisoners and cattle. The Highland
+leader met with misfortune. On July 26th Fraser writes: "Lieut.
+Alexander Fraser, Junior, returned to camp from the detachment which
+marched with the Col. on the 24th. He brings news of the Colonel's
+having been wounded in the thigh, by an unlucky shot from a small party
+of Canadians who lay in ambush and fired on the detachment out of a
+bush, and then retired. In the evening, the Col. came to camp with Capt.
+McPherson, who was wounded by the same shot, and the ball lodged in his
+thigh; but it is thought neither of their wounds are (_sic_) dangerous.
+There was not another man of the detachment touched." Next day the rest
+of the detachment "returned with three women and one man prisoners, and
+above two hundred head of cattle."
+
+On the following night July 28th, the French tried to destroy the
+British fleet by a fire ship. "This night the French sent down a large
+fire raft which they did not set fire to till they were fired on by some
+of the boats who are every night on the watch for them above the
+shipping. Our boats immediately grappled it, and tho' it burnt with
+great violence, they towed it past all the shipping without any damage."
+We know from other sources that one of the sailors engaged in dragging
+away the fireship likened it to having "hell-fire in tow."
+
+Fraser records on Tuesday, July 31st, the disastrous attempt by the
+British to carry by a frontal attack Montcalm's entrenchments along the
+Beauport shore. The attack failed partly through the rashness of the
+Grenadiers who dashed forward prematurely. For this Wolfe rebuked them
+but he commended the cool steadiness of the Highlanders. Some 700
+British casualties were the results of the attack. When the British drew
+off they left many of their men fallen on the shore. Fraser says: "I
+observed some men coming down from the trenches where some of our people
+lay killed; we imagined they were Indians who were sent to scalp them,
+after the whole had retreated."
+
+At once after the disaster, the Highlanders were moved back to their old
+camp at Point Levi. Some idle days followed. But, on August 15th, a
+detachment which included Fraser was sent to the Island of Orleans. It
+was bent on the work of desolating the Canadian parishes, the people of
+which still persisted in warring on the British. On Thursday, August
+16th, the detachment, consisting of about 170 officers and men, marched
+the length of the Island of Orleans and on the 17th it crossed to St.
+Joachim--the fertile flats lying almost under the shadow of Cap
+Tourmente: Fraser was drawing near to the Malbaie country. He writes:
+"Friday, 17th August.--Crossed from the Isle of Orleans to St. Joachim.
+Before we landed we observed some men walking along the fences, as if
+they intended to oppose us and on our march up to the Church of St.
+Joachim, we were fired on by some party's of the Enemy from behind the
+houses and fences, but upon our advancing they betook themselves to the
+woods, from whence they continued popping at us, till towards evening,
+when they thought proper to retire, and we kept possession of the
+Priest's house, which we set about fortifying in the best manner we
+could." They remained quietly at St. Joachim for some days. But they
+were getting ready for the grim task of desolating the parishes lying
+between St. Joachim and Montmorency. Fraser tells the story with
+soldier-like brevity, but obviously he hated the work.
+
+"Thursday, 23rd.--We were reinforced by a party of about one hundred and
+forty Light Infantry, and a Company of Rangers, under the command of
+Captain Montgomery of Kennedy's or forty-third Regiment, who likewise
+took the command of our detachment, and we all marched to attack the
+village to the west of St. Joachim, which was occupied by a party of the
+enemy to the number of about two hundred, as we supposed, Canadians and
+Indians. When we came pretty near the village, they fired on us from
+the houses pretty smartly; we were ordered to lie behind the fences till
+the Rangers, who were detached to attack the Enemy from the woods, began
+firing on their left flank, when we advanc^d briskly without great
+order; and the French abandoned the houses and endeavoured to get into
+the woods, our men pursuing close at their heels. There were several of
+the enemy killed, and wounded, and a few prisoners taken, all of whom
+the barbarous Captain Montgomery, who commanded us, ordered to be
+butchered in a most inhuman and cruel manner; particularly two, who I
+sent prisoners by a sergeant, after giving them quarter, and engaging
+that they should not be killed, were one shot, and the other knocked
+down with a Tomahawk (a little hatchet) and both scalped in my absence,
+by the rascally sergeant neglecting to acquaint Montgomery that I wanted
+them saved, as he, Montgomery, pretended when I questioned him about it;
+but even that was no excuse for such an unparalleled piece of barbarity.
+However, as the affair could not be remedied, I was obliged to let it
+drop. After this skirmish we set about burning the houses with great
+success, setting all in flames till we came to the church of St. Anne's,
+[the now famous shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre], where we put up for this
+night, and were joined by Captain Ross, with about one hundred and
+twenty men of his company.
+
+"Friday, 24th August.--Began to march and burn as yesterday, till we
+came to Ange Gardien where our detachment and Captain Ross, who had been
+posted for some days at Chateau Richer, joined Colonel Murray with the
+three companies of Grenadiers of the 22nd, 40th and 45th Regiments,
+where we are posted in four houses which we have fortified so as to be
+able, we hope, to stand any attack which we can expect with small arms.
+
+"Saturday, 25th.--Busy felling the fruit trees, and cutting the wheat to
+clear round us.
+
+"Sunday, 26th.--The same.
+
+"Monday, 27th August.--I hear Brigadier Murray has returned with his
+detachment, having had all the success expected of the detachment. We
+received orders to march to-morrow to Chateau Richer. Some men were
+observed skulking in the corn, round the houses we possessed; upon
+which, some of our people fired from one of the houses, when the whole
+took the alarm and continued firing from the windows and loopholes for
+about ten minutes. For my own part I can't say I could observe any of
+the Enemy, but as we had one man killed, and most of the men affirmed
+they saw men in the Corn, I can't doubt but there were a few of the
+Enemy near us."
+
+So the record goes on. On August 30th the detachment was busy fortifying
+itself in the Church at Chateau Richer near Quebec. On the next day
+orders came to burn the houses there but not the church and return at
+once to Montmorency. At Ange Gardien, on the way, General Murray, after
+whom Murray Bay is named, joined them with his detachment. As they
+marched along the force burned all the houses and was soon back in camp
+at Montmorency. They had left a trail black with desolation between that
+point and Cap Tourmente. Captain Gorham completed the tale of woe by
+destroying Baie St. Paul and Malbaie. Hardly a house was left between
+Montmorency and the Saguenay.
+
+But all this was only side-play. The crisis of the campaign was now
+near. On September 3rd Wolfe abandoned the camp at Montmorency. Fraser
+writes: "The Army at Montmorency decamped this day, and crossed to the
+Island of Orleans, and from thence to Point Levy, without molestation
+from the French, tho' they must have known some time ago that we
+intended to abandon that post."
+
+Wolfe was now massing as many troops as possible above Quebec on the
+south side of the river. On September 6th, 600 of the Highlanders,
+together with the 15th and the 43rd, marched six miles above Point Levi
+and there embarked on board the ships. Fraser says: "We are much
+crowded; the ship I am in has about six hundred on board, being only
+about two hundred and fifty tons." On the 7th and 8th it rained and the
+men must have been very uncomfortable in their narrow quarters. For some
+days still they remained in this condition. Meanwhile were issued to the
+men careful instructions as to what they should do. The army was to drop
+down the river in small boats, and to attempt to make a landing on the
+north shore.
+
+On the evening of September 12th came the final effort so carefully
+planned. "About nine o'clock, the night of the 12th, we went into the
+Boats as ordered." Fraser says that a shore battery began to fire on the
+British boats about 4.0 A.M. before they landed and that the landing at
+the Foulon to climb to the Heights was made at daybreak.
+
+"Thursday, 13th September, 1759.--The Light Infantry under the command
+of Colonel Howe, immediately landed and mounted the hill. We were fired
+on in the Boats by the Enemy who killed and wounded a few. In a short
+time, the whole army was landed at a place called 'Le Foulon,' (now
+Wolfe's Cove) about a mile and a half above the Town of Quebec, and
+immediately followed the Light Infantry up the hill. There was a few
+tents and a Picket of the French on the top of the hill whom the Light
+Infantry engaged, and took some of their Officers and men prisoners. The
+main body of our Army soon got to the upper ground after climbing a hill
+or rather a precipice, of about three hundred yards, very steep and
+covered with wood and brush. We had several skirmishes with the
+Canadians and Savages, till about ten o'clock, when the army was formed
+in line of battle, having the great River St. Lawrence on the right with
+the precipice which we mounted in the morning; on the left, a few
+houses, and at some distance the low ground and wood above the General
+Hospital with the River St. Charles; in front, the Town of Quebec, about
+a mile distant; in the rear, a wood occupied by the Light Infantry ...
+and the third Battalion of the Royal Americans.... The Army was ordered
+to march on slowly in line of battle, and halt several times, till about
+half an hour after ten, when the French began to appear in great numbers
+on the rising ground between us and the Town, and [they] having advanced
+several parties to skirmish with us, we did the like. They then got two
+Iron field pieces to play against our line. Before eleven o'clock, we
+got one brass field piece up the Hill, which being placed in the proper
+interval began to play very smartly on the Enemy while forming on the
+little eminence. Their advanced parties continued to annoy us and
+wounded a great many men. About this time, we observed the Enemy formed,
+having a bush of short brush wood on their right, which straitened them
+in room, and obliged them to form in columns. About eleven o'clock, the
+French Army advanced in columns till they had got past the bush of wood
+into the plain, when they endeavoured to form in line of Battle, but
+being much galled by our Artillery, which consisted of only one field
+piece, very well served, we observed them in some confusion. However
+they advanced at a brisk pace till within about thirty or forty yards of
+our front, when they gave us their first fire, which did little
+execution. We returned it, and continued firing very hot for about six,
+or (as some say) eight minutes, when the fire slackening, and the smoke
+of the powder vanishing, we observed the main body of the Enemy
+retreating in great confusion towards the Town, and the rest towards
+the River St. Charles. Our Regiment were then ordered by Brigadier
+General Murray to draw their swords and pursue them, which I dare say
+increased their panic but saved many of their lives, whereas if the
+artillery had been allowed to play, and the army advanced regularly
+there would have been many more of the Enemy killed and wounded, as we
+never came up with the main body. In advancing, we passed over a great
+many dead and wounded, (french regulars mostly) lying in the front of
+our Regiment, who,--I mean the Highlanders,--to do them justice, behaved
+extremely well all day, as did the whole of the army. After pursuing the
+French to the very gates of the Town, our Regiment was ordered to form
+fronting the Town, on the ground whereon the French formed first. At
+this time the rest of the Army came up in good order. General Murray
+having then put himself at the head of our Regiment, ordered them to
+face to the left and march thro' the bush of wood, towards the General
+Hospital, when they got a great gun or two to play upon us from the
+Town, which however did no damage, but we had a few men killed and
+Officers wounded by some skulking fellows with small arms, from the
+bushes and behind the houses in the suburbs of St. Louis and St. John's.
+After marching a short way through the bush, Brigadier Murray thought
+proper to order us to return again to the high road leading from Porte
+St. Louis, to the heights of Abraham, where the battle was fought, and
+after marching till we got clear of the bushes, we were ordered to turn
+to the right, and go along the edge of them towards the bank, at the
+descent between us and the General Hospital, under which we understood
+there was a body of the Enemy who no sooner saw us than they began
+firing on us from the bushes and from the bank; we soon dispossessed
+them from the bushes and from thence kept firing for about a quarter of
+an hour on those under cover of the bank; but as they exceeded us
+greatly in numbers, they killed and wounded a great many of our men,
+and killed two Officers, which obliged us to retire a little, and form
+again, when the 58th Regiment with the 2nd Battalion of Royal Americans
+having come up to our assistance, all three making about five hundred
+men, advanced against the Enemy and drove them first down to the great
+meadow between the Hospital and town and afterwards over the River St.
+Charles. It was at this time and while in the bushes that our Regiment
+suffered most: Lieutenant Roderick, Mr. Neill of Bana, and Alexander
+McDonell, and John McDonell, and John McPherson, volunteer, with many of
+our men, were killed before we were reinforced; and Captain Thomas Ross
+having gone down with about one hundred men of the 3rd Regiment to the
+meadow, after the Enemy, when they were out of reach, ordered me up to
+desire those on the height would wait till he would come up and join
+them, which I did, but before Mr. Ross could get up, he unfortunately
+was mortally wounded in the body, by a cannon ball from the hulks, in
+the mouth of the River St. Charles, of which he died in great torment,
+but with great resolution, in about two hours thereafter.
+
+"In the afternoon, Mons. Bougainville, with the French Grenadiers and
+some Canadians, to the number of two thousand who had been detached to
+oppose our landing at Cap Rouge, appeared between our rear and the
+village St. Foy, formed in a line as if he intended to attack us; but
+the 48th Regiment with the Light Infantry and 3rd Battalion Royal
+Americans being ordered against him, with some field pieces, they fired
+a few cannon shot at him when he thought proper to retire.
+
+"Thus ended the battle of Quebec, the first regular engagement that we
+... fought in North America, which has made the king of Great Britain
+master of the capital of Canada, and it is hoped ere long will be the
+means of subjecting the whole country to the British Dominion; and if
+so, this has been a greater acquisition to the British Empire than all
+that England has acquired by Conquest since it was a nation, if I may
+except the conquest of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the 2nd.
+
+"The Enemy's numbers I have never been able to get an exact account of.
+We imagined them seven or eight thousand: this has been disputed since.
+However, I am certain they were greatly superior to us in numbers, as
+their line was equal to ours in length, tho' they were in some places
+nine deep, whereas ours was no more than three deep. Add to this, their
+advanced parties and those in the bushes, on all hands, I think they
+must exceed five thousand.
+
+"Our strength at the utmost did not exceed the thousand men in the line,
+exclusive of the 15th Regiment and 2nd Battalion Royal Americans, who
+were drawn up on our left, fronting the River St. Charles, with the 3rd
+Battalion Royal Americans and Light Infantry in the rear, and the 48th
+Regiment, who were drawn up between our main body and the Light Infantry
+as a Corps of Reserve. So that I am pretty certain our numbers did not
+exceed four thousand men, the Regiments being very weak, most of them
+under three hundred men each.
+
+"We had only about five hundred men of our Army killed and wounded, but
+we suffered an irreparable loss in the death of our commander the brave
+Major General James Wolfe, who was killed in the beginning of the
+general action; we had the good fortune not to hear of it till all was
+over.
+
+"The French were supposed to have about one thousand men killed and
+wounded, of whom five hundred killed during the whole day, and amongst
+these Monsieur le Lieutenant General Montcalm, the commander in chief of
+the French Army in Canada, one Brigadier General, one Colonel and
+several other Officers. I imagined there had been many more killed and
+wounded on both sides, as there was a heavy fire for some minutes,
+especially from us.
+
+"We had of our Regiment three officers killed and ten wounded, one of
+whom Captain Simon Fraser, afterwards died. Lieutenant Archibald
+Campbell was thought to have been mortally wounded, but to the surprise
+of most people recovered; Captain John McDonell thro' both thighs;
+Lieut. Ronald McDonell thro' the knee; Lieutenant Alexander Campbell
+thro' the leg; Lieutenant Douglas thro' the arm, who died of this wound
+soon afterwards; Ensign Gregorson, Ensign McKenzie and Lieutenant
+Alexander Fraser, all slightly. I received a contusion in the right
+shoulder or rather breast, before the action became general, which
+pained me a good deal, but it did not disable me from my duty then, or
+afterwards.
+
+"The detachment of our Regiment consisted, at our marching from Point
+Levi, of six hundred men, besides commissioned and non-commissioned
+Officers; but of these, two Officers and about sixty men were left on
+board for want of boats, and an Officer and about thirty men left at the
+landing place; besides a few left sick on board, so that we had about
+five hundred men in the action. We suffered in men and Officers more
+than any three Regiments in the field. We were commanded by Captain John
+Campbell; the Colonel and Captain McPherson having been unfortunately
+wounded on the 25th July, of which they were not yet fully recovered.
+
+"We lay on our Arms all the night of the 13th September.
+
+"Friday, 14th September.--We got ashore our tents and encamped our
+Regiment on the ground where they fought the battle yesterday. He[re] we
+are within reach of the guns of the town.
+
+"Saturday, 15th September.--We were ordered to move our Camp nigh the
+wood, at a greater distance from the Town. We are making advanced
+redoubts within five hundred yards of the town."
+
+Such is Fraser's account of the struggle on the Plains of Abraham and of
+the conduct of the Highlanders in their first pitched battle in North
+America. The resolute preparations to attack Quebec produced their
+effect. On September 18th the fortress surrendered. A little later the
+army broke up the camp outside the walls and marched into the town. The
+outlook was certainly not cheerful: "Most of the houses are destroyed
+and we have but a very dismal prospect for seven or eight months, as
+fresh provisions are very scarce, and every other thing exorbitantly
+dear." A little later the fleet sailed away and General Murray with a
+small force was left in a hostile country to hold Quebec through a long
+and bitterly cold winter. He established two out-posts, one at Ste. Foy,
+the other at Lorette, and then the army bent all its energies to meet
+the foes, cold, disease and the French. Fighting the cold was terrible
+work. Fraser writes:
+
+"December 1st.--The Governor ordered two weeks wood to be issued to the
+Garrison. It is thought we shall have a great deal of difficulty in
+supplying ourselves with fuel this winter. The winter is now very
+severe.
+
+"December 20th.--The winter is become almost insupportably cold. The men
+are notwithstanding obliged to drag all the wood used in the Garrison on
+sledges from St. Foy, about four miles distance. This is a very severe
+duty; the poor fellows do it however with great spirit, tho' several of
+them have already lost the use of their fingers and toes by the
+incredible severity of the frost, and the country people tell us it is
+not yet at the worst. Some men on sentry have been deprived of speech
+and sensation in a few minutes, but hitherto, no person has lost his
+life, as care is taken to relieve them every half hour or oftener when
+the weather is very severe. The Garrison in general are but
+indifferently cloathed, but our regiment in particular is in a pitiful
+situation having no breeches, and the Philibeg is not all calculated for
+this terrible climate. Colonel Fraser is doing all in his power to
+provide trowsers for them, and we hope soon to be on a footing with
+other Regiments in that respect.
+
+"January, 1760.--Nothing remarkable during this month. The duty is very
+severe on the poor men; we mount every day a guard of about one hundred
+men, and the whole off duty with a subaltern officer from each Regiment
+are employed in dragging fire wood; tho' the weather is such that they
+are obliged to have all covered but their eyes, and nothing but the last
+necessity obliged any men to go out of doors."
+
+Early in February the St. Lawrence froze over. On February 13th the
+British established a force in the Church at St. Joseph at Point Levi
+but it was attacked by the French and then, on February 24th, Murray
+sent a rescue party. The Highlanders and the 28th went across on the ice
+and nearly intercepted the retreat of the French force, which was driven
+off. The kilted Highlanders marching on the ice in the bitter winter
+weather make an interesting picture. But by this time, no doubt, they
+were not bare-legged!
+
+Towards the end of March there was much illness and Fraser writes: "The
+Scurvy, occasioned by salt provisions and cold, has begun to make fierce
+havock in the garrison, and it becomes every day more general. In short,
+I believe there is scarce a man of the Army entirely free from it." On
+the 24th of April he writes again: "Great havock amongst the Garrison
+occasioned by the Scurvy, &c.; this is the more alarming, as the General
+seems certain that the French are preparing to come and attack the
+place, and will he says, be here in a very few days."
+
+Of the garrison of 5653 no less than 2312 were on the sick list, when,
+on the 26th, came the great crisis of the defence of Quebec:
+
+"On the night of the 26th April, a man of the French army who, with some
+others had been cast away in a boat that night, came down the river on a
+piece of ice, and being taken up next morning at the Town, gave the
+General information that the chevalier de Levi [Levis] was within twenty
+miles of us, with an army of about twelve thousand men, made up of
+regulars, Canadians and savages.
+
+"27th April, 1760.--The Governor marched out, with the Grenadiers and
+Piquets of the garrison, to support the Light Infantry which had taken
+post some days before near Cap Rouge. By the time he got out, the
+vanguard of the French army appeared; upon which, he thought it
+adviseable to withdraw the Light Infantry, and all the other outposts,
+and retire to Town; and for that purpose he sent orders to the 28th,
+47th and 58th and Colonel Fraser's Regiment to march out to St. Foy and
+cover his retreat; the 35th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Royal Americans
+having been detached in the morning to prevent the enemy, in case they
+attempted to land at Sillery or any other place near the Town. The
+retreat was accordingly effected without any loss, tho' the enemy were
+so nigh as to skirmish with our rear till we got within half a league of
+the Ramparts.
+
+"On the 28th April, 1760, about eight o'clock in the morning, the whole
+Garrison, exclusive of the Guards, was drawn up on the parade, and about
+nine o'clock we marched out of Town with twenty pieces of Field
+Artillery, that is, two to each Regiment. The men were likewise ordered
+to carry a pick axe or spade each. When we had marched a little way out
+of Town, we saw the advanced parties of the Enemy nigh the woods, about
+half a league distant from us. When we were about three-quarters of a
+mile out of Town, the General ordered the whole to draw up in line of
+Battle, two deep, and take up as much room as possible. Soon thereafter,
+he ordered the men to throw down the intrenching tools, and the whole
+Army to advance slowly, dressing by the right, having drawn up the 35th
+Regiment and 3rd Battalion Royal Americans in our rear as a corps of
+reserve, with one hundred men (in a redoubt which was begun by us a few
+days preceding) to cover our retreat in case of necessity. In this
+order, we advanced, about one hundred paces, when the canonading began
+on our side, and we observed the French advanced parties retiring, and
+their main body forming in order of Battle at the edge of the wood,
+about three hundred paces distant we continued canonading and advancing
+for some minutes. The enemy, on their side, played against the left of
+our army, where our Regiment happened to be, with two pieces of cannon
+and killed and wounded us some men. The affair begun now to turn
+serious, when the General ordered the Light Infantry, who were posted on
+the right of our army, to attack five companies of French Grenadiers who
+they obliged to retire, but they being supported by a large column of
+the enemy, the Light Infantry were in their turn obliged to give way,
+which they doing along the front of our line on the right (as I am told)
+hindered our men on the right from firing for some minutes which gave
+the enemy full time to form. On the left, matters were in a worse
+situation. The company of Volunteers of the garrison, commanded by
+Captain Donald McDonald of our Regiment, and Captain Hazen's company of
+Rangers who covered the left flank of our army having been almost
+entirely destroyed, were obliged to give way; by this means the left of
+the 28th Regiment was exposed, and this obliged them to give ground
+after an obstinate resistance; Colonel Fraser's Regiment was next them
+to the right, and being in danger of being surrounded, and at the same
+time extremely galled by a fire from the Bushes in front and flank,
+were under a necessity of falling back instantly, when Colonel Fraser
+who commanded the Left Brigade consisting of the 28th, 47th and his own
+Regiment, sent orders to the 47th to retire; they were drawn up with a
+small rising ground in their front, which till then covered them pretty
+much from the enemy's fire, but as most of the Regiment to the right, as
+well as the two Regiments to the left of them, had by this time retired,
+it was absolutely necessary for the 47th to quit that ground, otherwise
+they must inevitably have been surrounded in a few minutes. Most of the
+Regiments attempted to carry off their artillery, but the ground was so
+bad with wreaths of snow in the hollows, that they were obliged to
+abandon them, after nailing them up, as well as the intrenching tools.
+Every Regiment made the best of their way to Town, but retired however
+in such a manner that the enemy did not think proper to pursue very
+briskly, otherwise they must have killed or made prisoners many more
+than they did. Our loss was about three hundred killed, and about seven
+hundred wounded, and a few Officers and men made prisoners. We had about
+three thousand in the field, one-third of whom had that very day, come
+voluntarily out of the Hospitals; of these, about five hundred were
+employed in dragging the cannon, and five hundred more in reserve, so
+that we could have no more than two thousand in the line of battle,
+whereas the enemy must have had at least four times as many, beside a
+large body in reserve, and notwithstanding their great superiority we
+suffered very little in the retreat; some Regiments attempted to rally,
+but it was impossible to form in any sort of order with the whole, till
+we got within the walls.
+
+"Our Regiment had about four hundred men in the field near one half of
+whom had that day come out of the Hospital, out of their own accord. We
+had about sixty killed and forty wounded, and of thirty-nine officers,
+Captain Donald McDonald who commanded the volunteer company of the army,
+and Lieutenant Cosmo Gordon who commanded the Light Infantry company of
+our Regiment, were both killed in the field; Lieutenant Hector McDonald
+and Ensign Malcolm Fraser died of their wounds, all very much regretted
+by every one who knew them. We had twenty-three more Officers wounded;
+of this number was Colonel [Simon] Fraser, who commanded the left wing
+of the army, and it was with great pleasure we observed his behaviour
+during the action, when he gave his orders with great coolness and
+deliberation. He was touched at two different times; the first took him
+in the right breast but having his cartouche box slung, it luckily
+struck against the star of it and did not penetrate tho', otherways,
+must infallibly have done his business. The second, he got in the
+retreat, but striking against the cue of his hair, he received no other
+damage than a stiffness in his neck for some days. [Fraser then adds
+this tribute to Lord Lovat's son:] Here I cannot help observing that if
+any unlucky accident had befallen our Colonel, not only his Regiment
+must have suffered an irreparable loss, but I think I can, without any
+partiality say, it would be a loss to his Country. His behaviour this
+winter in particular to his Regiment has been such, as to make him not
+only esteemed by them, but by the Garrison in general. Captain Alexander
+Fraser of our Regiment, was wounded in the right temple, and thought
+very dangerous, the rest are mostly flesh wounds. I received a musket
+ball in the right groin, which was thought dangerous for three or four
+days, as the ball was supposed to be lodged, but whether it has wrought
+out in walking into Town, or did not penetrate far enough at first to
+lodge, or is still in, I cannot say, but in twenty days I was entirely
+cured, and the wound which was at first but small was entirely closed
+up.
+
+"When we marched out, we thought the General did not intend to give the
+French battle; and as he ordered the Army to carry out intrenching
+tools, we thought he meant to throw up works on the rising ground,
+before the Town, if the Enemy should not choose to attack him that day;
+but, it seems he changed his mind on seeing their situation, which gave
+him all the advantage he could desire with such an inferior Army and
+where, if the Enemy ventured to attack him, he could use his Artillery,
+on which was his chief dependence, to the best purpose: having a rising
+ground, whereon he might form his Army and plant his Cannon, so as to
+play on the Enemy as they advanced for about four hundred or five
+hundred yards, with round shot, and when they came within a proper
+distance the grape shot must have cut them to pieces. However, it seems
+he observed the enemy, some formed at the edge of the wood, some
+forming, and the rest marching from St. Foy. The bait was too tempting,
+and his passion for glory getting the better of his reason he ordered
+the Army to march and attack the enemy, as he thought, before they could
+form, in a situation the most desired by them and ought to be avoided by
+us, as the Canadians and Savages could be used against us to the
+greatest advantage in their beloved (if I may say element) woods. It
+would give me great pleasure to relate something more to the advantage
+of this gentleman who is, in many respects, possessed of several
+virtues, and particularly all the military ones, except prudence, and
+entirely free of all mercenary principles; but, as his conduct on this
+occasion is universally condemned by all those who are not immediately
+dependent on him, truth obliges me to state matters as I believe, they
+really stood; more especially as it is not said he advised with any of
+those who had a right to be consulted before such a step should be
+taken. Nay, it is said: that the preceding night, at a meeting with the
+different Commandants of the Corps, he declared his intention of
+fortifying himself on the heights and not to attack the Enemy, unless he
+should be forced to it, which we were persuaded of by his orders to
+carry out intrenching tools. We had very little chance of beating an
+Army four times our number [an exaggeration: they were not twice as
+numerous] in a situation where we could scarce act; and if the Enemy had
+made a proper use of their advantage, the consequences must have proved
+fatal to us, as they might have got betwixt us and the Town, cut off our
+retreat, and by that means ruined us to all intents." [It will hardly be
+denied that the young officer is rather severe upon his future friend
+and patron, General Murray.]
+
+"Our situation became now extremely critical: we were beat in the field,
+by an army greatly superior in numbers, and obliged to rely on what
+defence we could make within the walls of Quebec, which were hitherto
+reckoned of very little consequence against a superior army.
+
+"The French that very night after the Battle opened trenches within six
+hundred yards of the walls, and went on next, 29th April, with their
+works pretty briskly. For the first two days after the battle there was
+very little done by us; and on the 1st of May, the largest of our block
+houses (small square redoubts of Logs musquet proof) was blown up by
+accident, and Captain Cameron of our Regiment and a subaltern of the
+48th with several men, dangerously burnt and bruised. On the 3rd day
+after the battle, the General set about to strengthen or (I may say)
+fortify the Town, and the men worked with the greatest alacrity. In a
+few days there were about one hundred additional guns mounted, with
+which our people kept an incessant fire on the enemy, and retarded their
+works very much.
+
+"On the 9th May, the Leostaff Frigate, Captain Dean, arrived from
+England, and brought us news from thence, and informed us that there
+was a squadron in the River, which might be expected every tide to our
+assistance. This added greatly to the spirits of the Garrison, and our
+works were carried on briskly. The General seemed resolved from the
+first to defend the place to the last. This, nobody doubted, and every
+one seemed to forget their late misfortune, and to place entire
+confidence in the General's conduct, which all must acknowledge very
+resolute, when reduced almost to an extremity.
+
+"On the 11th May, the French opened two Batteries mounting thirteen
+guns, and one or two mortars. Their heavy metal consisted of one
+twenty-four and two eighteen pounders, the rest were all light. They did
+not seem to confine their fire entirely to any particular part of the
+Walls, otherwise I believe they might in time have made a breach, and
+their fire was not very smart. We were masters of a much superior fire,
+and annoyed the besiegers at their batteries very much. Their fire
+became every day more and more faint, and it was generally believed they
+intended to raise the seige.
+
+"On the 16th May, in the evening the Vanguard, commodore Swanton, and
+Diana Frigate, Captain Schomberg, arrived from England, and next
+morning, 17th May, 1760, they and the Leostaff attacked the two French
+Frigates that lay at anchor in the Bay, above Cape Diamond; which when
+they first observed, they made as if they intended to engage, but on our
+ships approaching nearer, they set sail up the river; but one of them
+ran ashore immediately, and our Frigates soon got up with theirs, and
+obliged them also to run aground and thereafter destroyed them. One ship
+however escaped out of their reach, and unluckily, the Leostaff, after
+all was over, ran on a rock, sunk and was entirely lost.
+
+"That very night several deserters came into the Town, and informed that
+most part of the French army had marched, the Trenches being guarded by
+their Grenadiers only. About twelve o'clock at night, the General sent
+out a party who found the Trenches entirely abandoned and next morning,
+18th May, 1760, we found ourselves entirely freed of very disagreeable
+neighbours, having left behind all their artillery, with a great part of
+their ammunition, Camp equipage and baggage. What made them retreat with
+such precipitation we could not guess; but, it seems they were seized
+with a panic. It appears they allowed the savages to scalp all the
+killed and most part of the wounded, as we found a great many scalps on
+the bushes.
+
+"I have been since informed by Lieutenant McGregor, of our Regiment, who
+was left on the field wounded, and narrowly escaped being killed, having
+received two stabs of a bayonet from two French Regulars, that he saw
+the savages murdering the wounded and scalping them on all sides, and
+expected every moment to share the same fate, but was saved by a French
+Officer, who luckily spoke a little English."
+
+Thus ends Fraser's narrative of the two sieges of Quebec. He served in
+the third siege, that of 1775-76, and was still alive in 1812-15 to give
+counsel when Quebec was again menaced by the Americans.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B (p. 38)
+
+TITLE-DEED OF THE SEIGNIORY OF MURRAY BAY GRANTED TO CAPTAIN JOHN
+NAIRNE OF THE 78th REGIMENT, APRIL 27th, 1762
+
+
+By the Honourable James Murray, Esquire, Governor of Quebec, &c.
+
+Whereas it is a national advantage and tends to promote the cultivation
+of lands within the province to encourage His Majesty's natural-born
+subjects settling within the same:
+
+For these purposes, and in consideration of the faithful services
+rendered by John Nairne, Esquire, Captain in the 78th Regiment of Foot,
+unto His Majesty, I do hereby give, grant, and concede unto the said
+Captain John Nairne, his heirs, executors, and administrators for ever,
+all that extent of land lying on the north side of the river St.
+Lawrence from the Cap aux Oyes, limit of the parish of Eboulemens, to
+the south side of the river of Malbaie, and for three leagues back, to
+be known hereafter, at the special request of said John Nairne, by the
+name of Murray's Bay; firmly to hold the same to himself, his heirs,
+executors, and administrators for ever, or until His Majesty's pleasure
+is further known, for and in consideration of the possessor's paying
+liege homage to His Majesty, his heirs and successors, at his castle of
+St. Lewis in Quebec on each mutation of property, and, by way of
+acknowledgment, a piece of gold of the value of ten shillings, with one
+year's rent of the domain reserved, as customary in this country,
+together with the woods and rivers, or other appurtenances within the
+said extent, right of fishing or fowling on the same therein included
+without hindrance or molestation; all kind of traffic with the Indians
+of the back country hereby specially excepted.
+
+Given under my hand and seal at Quebec, this 27th day of April, 1762.
+
+(Signed) JAS. MURRAY.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C (p. 78)
+
+THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC IN 1775-76
+
+COLONEL NAIRNE TO MISS M. NAIRNE
+
+
+_Quebec, 14th May, 1776._
+
+The New England rebels were very successful on their first arrival in
+this Province having got most of the Canadians in their interest. They
+took the two Regiments (which were all the regular troops in the
+Province) prisoners, made themselves masters of the Town of Montreal and
+all the Forts and the whole open country. Flushed with this success they
+came before our Capital (Quebec) where their main army was joined by a
+reinforcement of six hundred men who had marched straight through the
+Woods from Boston where scarcely any body had ever passed before and
+thought utterly impracticable for a body of men. The suburbs about
+Quebec which were extensive (now in ruins) were not all destroyed at the
+first arrival of the enemy so that in two places they annoyed us with
+their Riflemen though they only killed a very few. They also (though in
+the Winter) got a Battery of five guns against the Town but [it] was
+silenced by a superior fire from our Ramparts. They also bombarded the
+Town in the night with small shell till the 31st December when about two
+hours before day they made a general attack with their whole force upon
+the Ramparts, their two principal attacks being against the two
+extremitys of the low Town. Their General (Montgomery) an Irish
+gentleman who had been a Captain in our army possessing extraordinary
+qualifications fitting him for such a Command led the attack against a
+very strong post in the low town. Our Cannon (six pieces) loaded with
+grape shot, did not begin to fire till the enemy was within the distance
+of twenty yards, which with the musketry of the guard at the same time
+made terrible havoc. Their General with four of his officers lay slain
+in one heap within twenty and others within ten yards of our
+fortifications by which that attack was wholly frustrated and all that
+part of their army retired in confusion. The attack upon the other
+extremity of the low Town was made with six hundred men. At first they
+had success though that turned out at last to their ruin. They forced
+our advanced post where we had four pieces of cannon, afterward got
+possession of another barrier and forced their way through a narrow
+street to the last barrier, which if they had gained they would have
+been in the low Town. At the same time the Governor ordered a sally out
+at a Gate they had passed to follow their track in the snow (that was
+then deep) and fall upon them behind. That we should open a Gate and
+attack them when attacked ourselves was a thing very unexpected so that
+finding they were stopped at the last barrier and thus attacked behind
+they were obliged to take shelter in the houses of the narrow street and
+at last gave themselves up prisoners to the number of about four hundred
+and fifty amongst whom were thirty-two officers of all ranks from
+Colonels to Ensigns. The morning of the attack I happened to have the
+Piquet and guessing by the flashes in the air (in the dark) that it was
+musketry at the other side of the town, tho' we heard no report, had the
+Piquet drawn out upon the Ramparts at our alarm post, before the firing
+came round that length, which it soon did and we fired away upon these
+people as they passed along that way, which they were obliged to do to
+get to the low Town. About break of day Major Caldwell came round with
+some men, and took me with part of the Piquet along with him to the low
+Town. When we got there the enemy had got on as far as the inner Barrier
+and [had] a Ladder on both sides of it. There the Battle raged till the
+Enemy falling back got into Houses. Some time after the Sorti coming
+behind them put an end to the affair. It was the first time I ever
+happened to be so closely engaged as we were obliged to push our
+bayonets. It is certainly a disagreeable necessity to be obliged to put
+one another to death especially those speaking the same language and
+dressed in the same manner with ourselves. Only these mad people had a
+large piece of white linen or paper upon their foreheads with the words
+"Liberty or Death" wrote upon it. The Garrison in general behaved
+remarkably well consisting in all of about 1400 men, mostly the town
+Militia and sailors with 200 of Maclean's corps which were only raised
+last summer. They certainly did their duty with much patience during a
+severe winter of six months. In the day time we wrought a great deal at
+the fortifications and shovelling the snow and in the night even those
+not upon duty durst not sleep but with Clothes and accoutrements on and
+by whole Companys in one House to be the more ready, for, upon our
+vigilance, everything depended. For the last month the Enemy had two
+Batterys of four Guns each, playing on the Town with red hot Balls, in
+hope to set it on fire but luckily did very little harm. They also made
+use of a fire ship in order to burn our shipping in the Harbour, which
+would have communicated the flames to the Town, at the same time
+intending to escalade the Walls, for which purpose they laid numbers of
+ladders all round in our sight which had the effect to keep us more upon
+our Guard. This fire ship got very near the Harbour but a Cannon being
+fired that was well directed the men that were in her left her a little
+too soon so that the tide carried her clear past the town without doing
+the least harm and disappointed them of their attack for which their
+whole army was prepared. Thus from the 14th of November last we passed
+one dreary night after another either watching or making Rounds and
+Patrole upon an extent of works of upwards of three miles round, till
+the 6th of May when we had the agreeable sight of Commodore Douglass
+with a Ship of War and two Frigates arriving in the Bason with part of
+the 29th Regiment on board. And the same day with only the reinforcement
+of about 300 Regular Troops the Gates were thrown open and the whole
+garrison (except those on Guard) poured out, drove off the Enemy's
+advanced Guards and marched forward near two miles clear out upon the
+plain (our former field of Battles last war) with three pieces of cannon
+in our front that fired away at some partys of men at a distance. This
+Sally, so unexpected and the two Frigates [being] under sail at the same
+time up the River; [and the enemy] being ignorant of our numbers and
+suspecting probably that there was a force on board the Frigates which
+might by taking possession of a strong post above cut off their retreat,
+their whole army took to their heels (it is said about 3000 men) leaving
+all their Artillery stores, baggage and provisions which fell into our
+hands. I suppose they will retreat to Montreal where they expect strong
+reinforcements from New England. We will probably soon follow them
+though our Corps may possibly be left to garrison Quebec. General
+Carleton has gained honour by his behaviour this winter. He showed
+himself a brave steady officer careful not to expose rashly the lives of
+his men, in short a chief whom we esteem and cheerfully obey. Lieut.
+Colonel Maclean has likewise great merit in having contributed much to
+the preservation of this place by his forwarding the reparations of the
+fortifications and his indefatigable care and trouble in the directing
+the duty of the Garrison, together with his management in every shape as
+a good officer. He was here the second in Command and seemed the fittest
+man in the world for the place he occupied. There were also several old
+Officers who happened to be here and were of great service as Major
+Caldwell who distinguished himself very much, Major Cox, two Captain
+Frasers and several others.
+
+Mr. Wauchope who you will wish to hear of is very well. He has done
+Lieutenant's duty this winter in Maclean's Regiment, is a good officer
+and went through some severe Duty with great perseverance.
+
+
+Yours, &c., &c.,
+
+J.N.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX D (p. 98)
+
+MEMORANDUM FOR ENSIGN JOHN NAIRNE, 5TH APRIL, 1795
+
+
+1st. You ought to read the Articles of War.
+
+2nd. To pay the greatest attention to all orders from your Superior
+Officers.
+
+3rd. Take care to have your own Orders strictly obeyed by those who are
+under your Command but before you give any Order, be sure it is right
+and necessary.
+
+4th. Attend the Parades, and learn without delay the different motions
+and words of Command and every part of the Duty of a Subaltern officer
+when upon guard; also when under Arms with the whole Battalion, or
+otherwise.
+
+5th. Be always ready and willing to go upon every military duty that may
+be ordered. Never think you do too much in that way; the more the better
+and the more honourable.
+
+6th. Be careful in doing the Company Duty, in such a manner, that the
+Soldiers may be kept in excellent Order and everything belonging to
+them; as their Arms, Accoutrements, Ammunition, Necessarys, Dress,
+Messing, etc., according as may be regulated by the standing Orders of
+the Regiment, or that may be most agreeable to your Captain or
+Lieutenant Commanding the Company; also not only to know every man of
+the Company by Name, but, as soon as possible, to know their several
+Characters and Dispositions that each may be encouraged, cherished, or
+punished, as he deserves. You ought every day, or very frequently to
+wait on your Captain, or Lieutenant Commanding the Company, in order to
+report to him upon these matters, and to know if he has any directions
+or Commands for you.
+
+7th. Endeavour all you can to learn the Adjutant's Duty: To be able to
+Exercise the Company (or even the Battalion) in the Manual, their
+Manoeuvres and the firings.
+
+8th. Make yourself fit for paying the Company, and to be exact in
+keeping Accounts, so that you may be capable of even being paymaster to
+a Regiment.
+
+9th. You ought to practice writing Court-Martials, Returns, and Reports
+of all sorts, Acquittance Rolls, Muster Rolls, and Letter Writing;
+taking always great pains to have a good hand of writ and to spell well.
+
+10th. It is also recommended to you to study Engineering and Drawing; To
+read Military Books, The occurrences and news of the time and History,
+etc.; Never to leave anything undone which you think ought to be done;
+in short, not to lose or misspend time, but constantly [to] endeavour to
+gain knowledge, and improvement, and to exert yourself in being always
+steady and diligent in the Execution of every part of your Duty.
+
+11th. No doubt you will soon get Acquainted with all the officers of the
+Regiment, and to know the Companys the Subaltern Officers belong to,
+likewise to know the Names and Characters of all the non-Commissioned
+officers, and the Companys they belong to, even most of the private men
+and what Companys they are in. You ought to have a Book of Quarters (or
+List of the Army) and learn the Number, and any thing else Remarkable of
+each Regiment; also concerning the Generals, and Field Officers, and the
+Rules and Regulations of the Army.
+
+N.B.--Never be ashamed to ask questions at any of your Brother Officers
+in order to gain information. The Sergeants of your Company will furnish
+you with any Rolls, Lists or Returns you may have occasion for
+respecting the Regt.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX E (p. 104)
+
+THE "PORPOISE" (BELUGA OR WHITE WHALE) FISHERY ON THE ST.
+LAWRENCE
+
+
+The so-called "porpoise" of the St. Lawrence is in reality the French
+_marsouin_, the English beluga, a word of Russian origin, signifying
+white. The Beluga (_Delphinapterus leucas_), is a real whale with its
+most striking characteristic the white, or rather cream-coloured, skin
+described by some writers as very beautiful. Like the narwhal it has no
+dorsal fin. Though the smallest member of the whale family it is
+sometimes more than twenty feet long; but usually ranges from thirteen
+to sixteen feet. The young are bluish black in colour and may be seen
+swimming beside their mother who feeds them with a very thick milk.
+These young grow rapidly and become mottled and then white as they grow
+older. The beluga is peculiar to northern regions where the water is
+cold: when one is seen at the mouth of an English river it is a subject
+of special note. There are numbers in Hudson Bay and they have been
+found in the Yukon River, it is said, 700 miles from its mouth, whither
+they went no doubt after salmon or other fish.
+
+Jacques Cartier saw the beluga disporting itself off Malbaie nearly 400
+years ago and in summer it is still to be seen there almost daily. It is
+never alone. One sees the creatures swimming rapidly in single file.
+They come to the surface with a prolonged sigh accompanied by the
+throwing of a small jet of water; the perfectly white bodies writhe into
+view as the small round heads disappear. Sometimes the beluga makes a
+noise like the half suppressed lowing of oxen and, since the aquatic
+world is so silent, sailors have christened the beluga, for this slender
+achievement, the "sea canary." It is a playful creature and is
+apparently attracted by man's presence. Before its confidence in him was
+shaken it used to linger about wharves and ships. But, in spite of the
+extremely small aperture of its ear, it is very sensitive to sound and
+modern man with his fire arms and clatter of machinery frightens it
+away. In 1752 the Intendant Bigot issued special instructions to check
+the use of firearms on the point at Riviere Ouelle, in order that the
+beluga might not be frightened, to the ruin of the extensive fishery
+that has existed there for more than two hundred years. Its sight, touch
+and taste are also well developed but it has no olfactory nerve and is
+apparently without the sense of smell. The creature has qualities that
+we should hardly expect. It has been tamed and almost domesticated. The
+enterprising Barnum exhibited in New York a beluga which drew a boat
+about in his aquarium. At Boston another beluga from the St. Lawrence
+drew about a floating car carrying a woman performer. It knew its keeper
+and at the proper time would appear and put its head from the water to
+be harnessed or to take food. This beluga would take in its mouth a
+sturgeon and a small shark confined in the same tank, play with them and
+allow them to go unharmed. It would also pick up and toss stones with
+its mouth.
+
+The beluga is greedy. In the early spring, when he is thin and half
+starved, capelin and smelt in great numbers come to spawn along the
+north and south shores of the St. Lawrence. With high tide comes the
+beluga's chance to feed on the spawning fish and he will rush in quite
+near to shore for his favourite food. So voracious is he that with the
+fish he takes quantities of sand into his stomach. In eight or ten days
+he will eat enough to form from five to eight inches of fat over his
+whole body. "The facility with which he thus grows fat is explained,"
+says the Abbe Casgrain, "by the easy assimilation of such food and by
+the considerable development of his digestive apparatus."
+
+No doubt the beluga enjoys himself hugely. But Nemesis awaits him. His
+fish diet has a soporific effect; gorged with food he becomes stupid and
+is easily taken. Man's trap for him is simple and ingenious. A century
+and a half ago it was to be seen at Pointe au Pic and to-day it is in
+operation at Riviere Ouelle on the south side of the river. The weir or
+fishery for the beluga must be on a large scale and is expensive to keep
+up; it is for this reason that when the number of these creatures
+declined it was no longer possible to maintain the fishery at Pointe au
+Pic. At Riviere Ouelle annually more than 7000 stakes, from 18 to 20
+feet long, are necessary to keep in repair the fishery which is almost
+entirely destroyed each year by ice. Beginning at the shore a line of
+stakes is carried out into the river placed perhaps a foot apart to form
+a rough semi-circle about a mile and a third long. The stakes curve back
+to the shore leaving however a passage of perhaps 1000 feet open between
+the farther end and the shore. This outer end of the weir is completed
+by a smaller circle of stakes, so arranged as to make entrance easy by
+following within the line of stakes, but exit difficult. The distance
+between high and low water mark at Riviere Ouelle is about a mile and a
+half and along this great stretch of beach the small fish come in great
+numbers to spawn. There is a considerable point at the mouth of the
+little Riviere Ouelle. The wide beach, bare at low water, and this point
+furnish an admirable combination for the beluga fishery. At high tide
+the beluga comes rushing in near to shore after his prey, sometimes in
+water so shallow that his whole body comes into view. In his progress
+along the shore he is checked by the stakes reaching out from the point,
+so close together that he cannot get through. The stakes sway with the
+current and sometimes strike together making considerable noise. Early
+whalers thought the beluga would try to pass by squeezing between the
+stakes and to prevent this they fastened the stakes together with ropes.
+But this was not necessary. Frightened by the noise the timid beluga's
+instinct leads him to make for the open water. He dashes across the
+semi-circle of the fishery only to be checked by the line of stakes on
+its outer edge. The line like a wall he follows, looking for an opening,
+and may be led insensibly into the labyrinthine circle at its end from
+which he will hardly escape. If he heads back towards shore where he
+came in, he is frightened by the shallow water which he disregarded only
+when in pursuit of his prey. Where was shallow water indeed he may now
+find dry land for the tide is running out. So the creature becomes
+bewildered. He swims about slowly, as it were feeling his way, or
+disappears at the bottom, to be stranded when the tide goes out and thus
+becomes the prey of his enemy, man.
+
+Some old belugas are very cunning; they are called by the French
+Canadian the _savants_, the knowing ones, and seem to understand the
+wiles of the fisherman. They warn off the others and so foil the design
+against them. But greediness proves often their destruction. From
+over-feeding year after year they become fat and stupid and they too are
+likely in time to be taken. The less knowing beluga has usually slight
+chance of escape when once he encounters the line of stakes stretching
+out from the point and, since they follow each other blindly, if one is
+taken a whole troop is likely to meet the same fate.
+
+The Abbe Casgrain, who, since his childhood was spent at the Manor House
+at Riviere Ouelle, was long familiar with the "porpoise" fishery,
+describes the scene witnessed there by him on May 1st, 1873. It was a
+glorious day and the belugas appeared in greater numbers than for many
+years. They swarmed off the mouth of the Riviere Ouelle. At high tide
+they came in, skirting the rocks within a stone's throw of shore and
+devouring greedily the innumerable small fish. The surface of the
+shallow water in which they swam was white with their gleaming bodies.
+When they puffed they spurted jets of water into the air which fell in
+spray that sparkled in the sunlight. The Abbe then describes how the
+creatures became entrapped in the fishery. Instances of the mother's
+devotion are recorded. They have been known to wait outside the stakes
+for their young, caught within, and to allow themselves to be stranded
+and killed rather than leave their offspring.
+
+When the tide is low the slaughter begins. In the season of the spring
+tide the water at Riviere Ouelle retreats so far that the entrapped
+"porpoises" are left high and dry in the fishery and are readily killed.
+But in the season of neap tides enough water is left for them to swim
+about within the semi-circle of stakes. Boats are taken into the fishery
+through the outer line of stakes and then begins a regular whale hunt
+within a very circumscribed area. If the belugas are numerous their
+captors have not a moment to lose for the creatures may escape with the
+next tide. And numerous they sometimes are; 500 have been taken in a
+single tide; at Riviere Ouelle, about 1870, 101 were killed in one night
+by only four men. They had not expected such a host and had no time to
+send for help before the tide should rise again.
+
+The captors are armed with barbed harpoons and with spears. The harpoon
+is sometimes thrown at the beluga from a considerable distance. When
+struck the creature rushes to the surface, plunges and rolls to get
+free. He never defends himself but thinks only of flight. It is an
+accident if a boat is upset by the stroke of its tail; such accidents
+sometimes happen but the victim gets little more than a soaking, much to
+the merriment of his companions. The harpooned beluga will make off at
+full speed dragging in his wake the assailant's boat which flies over
+the face of the water, boiling with the mighty strokes of the monster's
+tail. Soon the water is red for each beluga sheds eight or ten gallons
+of blood. When he is tired the boat is drawn in closer by the rope
+fastened to the animal. As opportunity offers the spear is used and,
+driven home by a strong hand, it sometimes goes clear through the body.
+A skilful man will quickly strike some vital spot; otherwise the beluga
+struggles long.
+
+"Picture if possible," says the Abbe, "the animation of the beluga hunt
+when a hundred of them are in the weir, when twenty-five or thirty men
+are pursuing them, when five or six boats dragged by the creatures are
+ploughing the enclosed waters in every direction, when the spears are
+hurled from all sides and the men are covered with the blood which
+gushes out in streams. Some years ago the passengers of a passing
+steamer from Europe were witnesses of such a scene and showed their keen
+interest by firing a salvo of cannon."
+
+When the belugas have been killed the next task is to get them to shore.
+The work must be done quickly for the next tide will stop all work and
+may sweep the animals away. Horses are brought and the bodies are
+dragged ashore or partly floated with the aid of the rising tide. The
+task of cutting up and boiling follows immediately. Workmen with long
+knives take off the skin and separate the blubber from the flesh. The
+Abbe Casgrain describes the process in detail. In the end the blubber is
+cut up into small pieces and boiled in huge caldrons. The poor never
+fail to come for their share of the catch and, with proverbial charity,
+the Company carrying on the operations never send them away empty. "The
+share-holders" says the Abbe Casgrain, "are convinced that the success
+of their labours depends upon the gifts which they make to God, and
+their generosity merits His benediction," Many a habitant goes home with
+a mass of blubber in his pot or hooked to the end of a stout branch.
+
+The fishery is old and has been very profitable. La Potherie describes
+the industry as it existed at Kamouraska in 1701: that at Riviere Ouelle
+is found in 1707 and it remained in the hands of the heirs of the
+original promoters until, in 1870, it was found necessary to form them
+into an incorporated company. The oil is highly valued. It is very clear
+and has good lubricating qualities. Before the universal sway of
+petroleum it was much used for lighting purposes; an ordinary lamp would
+burn for 72 hours without going out. The Abbe Casgrain says that a
+barrel of the oil is worth from 100 to 200 dollars and since each beluga
+would yield not less than a barrel the value of the fishery in a good
+season is evident. The skin is very thick and of extraordinary strength.
+It has no grain and will take a beautiful polish.
+
+[Beddard, "A Book of Whales" (London, 1900), pp. 244 _sqq._
+
+Sir Harry Johnston, "British Mammals," (London, 1903), pp. 22 _sqq._
+
+La Potherie, "Histoire de l'Amerique Septentrionale," (Paris, 1703),
+Vol. 1, Lettre X., pp. 273 _sqq._
+
+Casgrain, "Une Paroisse Canadienne au XVIIe Siecle," Oeuvres, Vol. 1,
+pp. 530 _sqq._
+
+Casgrain, "Eclaircissements sur La Peche aux Marsouins," Ib. p. 563
+_sqq._]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX F (p. 122)
+
+THE PRAYER OF COLONEL NAIRNE
+
+
+(There are several versions of parts of the Prayer. It is, I think,
+partly copied from some other source, partly Nairne's own composition.)
+
+We believe in Thee our God; do thou strengthen our faith; We hope in
+thee; confirm our hope; we repent of all our Sins; but do thou increase
+our repentance. As our first beginning we worship thee; as our
+benefactor we praise thee; and as our supreme protector we pray unto
+thee that it may please thee, O God, to guide and lead us by thy
+Providence, to keep us in obedience to thy justice, to comfort us by thy
+mercie, and to protect us by thy Almighty power. We submit to thee all
+our thoughts, words, and deeds, as well as our afflictions, pains, and
+sufferings, and in thy name and for thy sake [we desire] to bear all
+adversity with patience. We will nothing but what thou Willest, because
+it is agreeable to thee. Give us grace that we may be attentive in
+prayer, vigilant in our Conduct, and immovable in all good purposes.
+Grant, most merciful Lord, that we may be true and just to those who put
+their trust in us, that we may be Courteous and kind to all men, and
+that in both our words and actions we may show them a good example.
+Dispose our hearts to admire and adore thy goodness, to hate all errours
+and evil ways. Assist us, most gracious God, in subduing our passions,
+covetousness by liberality, anger by mildness, and lukewarmness by zeal
+and fervency. Enable us to Conduct ourselves with prudence in all
+transactions, to show courage in danger, patience in adversity, in
+prosperity an humble will. Let thy Grace illuminate our understanding.
+Direct our will and bless our souls. Make us diligent in curbing all
+irregular affections and Zealous in imploring thy Grace, careful in
+keeping thy Commandments and constant in working out our own salvation.
+
+We humbly beseech thee, O Lord, to assist us in keeping our temper and
+passions under due restraint to reason and to virtue, so as not only to
+contribute to our internal peace of mind, honour, and reputation in this
+life, but also to our eternal Comfort and happiness in the life to come;
+and to defend us, O Lord, from the arts and subtilties which designing
+men may work against us in order to lead us into evil or idle purposes.
+Finally, O God, make us sensible how little is this world, how great thy
+Heavens and how long will be thy blessed eternity. O! that we may well
+prepare ourselves for Death and obtain of thee, O God, eternal life
+through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX G (p. 144)
+
+THE CURES OF MALBAIE
+
+
+Of the early missionaries I have found no record, though no doubt one
+could be compiled from the episcopal archives. The registers at Malbaie
+do not begin until 1790 but I find a note that in 1784 there were
+sixty-five communicants. Isle aux Coudres, Les Eboulements and Malbaie
+were then united under one cure, M. Compain, who lived at Isle aux
+Coudres. He served Malbaie from 1775 to 1788. This cure has a share in
+the legend of Pere de La Brosse, which, since it is characteristic of
+the region, is worth repeating.
+
+Pere de La Brosse was a much loved and saintly missionary priest,
+dwelling in his later years at Tadousac. On the evening of April 11th,
+1872, he played cards at Tadousac at the house of one of the officers of
+the post. Rising to go at about nine o'clock he said to the company:
+
+"I wish you good night, my dear friends, for the last time; for at
+midnight I shall be a dead man. At that hour you will hear the bell of
+my chapel ring. I beg you not to touch my body. To-morrow you will send
+for M. Compain at Isle aux Coudres. He will be waiting for you at the
+lower end of the island. Do not be afraid if a storm comes. I will
+answer for those whom you shall send."
+
+At first the company thought the good father was joking. None the less
+did they become anxious to see what should happen. Watch in hand they
+waited for the hour named. Exactly at midnight the bell of the chapel
+rang three times. They ran to the chapel and there found Pere de La
+Brosse upon his _prie-dieu_ dead.
+
+The next day, Sunday, a south-east wind blew with violence. Huge
+white-capped waves made the great river so dangerous that the employes
+of the post refused to undertake the journey to Isle aux Coudres of
+forty or fifty miles in a canoe over a raging sea. But the chief clerk
+at the post said to them: "You know well that the Father never deceived
+you. You ought to have confidence in his word. Is there no one among you
+who will carry out his last wish?"
+
+Then three or four men agreed to go. When they put their canoe in the
+water, behold a wonder! To the great surprise of every one the sea
+subsided so that before them lay a pathway of calm water. To their
+further amazement, they made the journey to Isle aux Coudres with
+incredible rapidity. As they neared the shore they could see M. Compain
+walking up and down, a book in his hand. When they were within hearing
+distance he called out "Pere de La Brosse is dead. You come to get me to
+bury him. I have been waiting an hour for you." When the canoe touched
+the shore M. Compain embarked and they carried him to Tadousac. At Isle
+aux Coudres the bell of the chapel had distinctly sounded three times
+at midnight as at Tadousac. M. Compain knew what it meant for Pere de La
+Brosse had told him what he told his friends at Tadousac. Other church
+bells in the neighbourhood also rang miraculously on that night. Pere de
+La Brosse had said while cure at Isle Verte, "If I die elsewhere than
+here, you will have certain knowledge of the fact at the moment of my
+death."
+
+The legend, the rather obscure motive of which is to emphasize the
+saintly virtues of Pere de La Brosse, is believed even to this day by
+many simple people, hundreds of whom know it by heart. But some are
+skeptical. "I should have been able to give more certainty to this
+tradition," says M. Mailloux, the historian of Isle aux Coudres and also
+its cure, "had I been able to make more extended investigation.
+Meanwhile," he adds naively, "my investigations suffice to give a high
+idea of the virtues of this admirable missionary."
+
+There is little to record of the careers of cures at Malbaie subsequent
+to M. Compain. Often the annals of the good are not exciting and this is
+eminently true of these virtuous teachers. M. Charles Duchouquet was
+cure of Isle aux Coudres and served Malbaie in 1790. In 1791 he was
+succeeded by M. Raphael Paquet who lived at Les Eboulements. The first
+cure resident at Malbaie was M. Keller who came in 1797. When he went
+away in 1799 M. J.-B.-A. Marcheteau who was cure of Les Eboulements and
+lived there, served Malbaie. In 1807 M. Marcheteau was succeeded by M.
+Le Courtois, the second resident cure, a French emigre who remained at
+Malbaie until 1822 and was, as we have seen, an intimate friend of the
+Nairne family. For a long time M. Le Courtois carried on missionary work
+among the Indians. In 1822 M. Duguay became cure; he went to Malbaie
+after being cure at Isle aux Coudres. In 1832 he was succeeded by M.
+Zepherin Leveque who, in 1840, was followed by M. Alexis Bourret. This
+cure was something of a scholar. He read the Greek fathers in the
+original which is, I fancy, very unusual among the priests of Canada. In
+1847 M. Beaudry became cure and in 1862 he was followed by M. Narcisse
+Doucet. It was under M. Doucet that the great influx of summer visitors
+began. Naturally they desired to have their own Protestant service on
+Sunday and M. Doucet did all he could to prevent their getting a place
+of worship. Protestantism having disappeared from Malbaie the cure was
+not anxious to see it revived. But the last Mrs. Nairne, a Protestant,
+then ruled at the Manor House, and she gave for the purpose of
+Protestant worship the admirable site of the present Union Church. M.
+Doucet was a man of considerable culture. The parish church, first built
+in 1806, was remodelled in his time as also was the _presbytere_; he
+built, too, the convent for girls. In 1891 M. B.-E. Leclercq became
+cure--a good man of the peasant type, who retired in 1906 and died at
+Malbaie in the following year. The present energetic cure is M. Hudon.
+
+[For Pere de La Brosse, see Casgrain, Oeuvres, Vol. 1, "Une Excursion
+a L'Ile aux Coudres"; Mailloux, "Histoire de L'Isle aux Coudres"
+(Montreal, 1879). M. Mailloux has particulars about some of the cures
+named above. The dates for the successive cures are found in the
+registers at Malbaie.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abraham, Plains of, 30, 69, 74, 81, 123, 258, 262.
+
+Amherst, General, 34.
+
+Amiens, Peace of, 119.
+
+Ange Gardien, 254, 255.
+
+Arnold, Colonel Benedict, 66-70, 76, 78, 81.
+
+Augustine, St., 236.
+
+Austerlitz, Battle of, 129.
+
+Avignon, 213.
+
+
+Baie St. Paul, 2, 9, 16, 20, 64, 89, 183, 255.
+
+Barnum, P.T., 280.
+
+Baxter, J.P., 243.
+
+Bazire, Marie, 11.
+
+Beaudry, Pere, 290.
+
+Beauport, 252.
+
+Beaupre, 16.
+
+Beaver Dam, 156.
+
+Beck, Miss, 170.
+
+Bedard, Pierre, 150.
+
+Begin, Mgr., 198.
+
+Begon, M., Intendant, 14.
+
+Belairs, 109.
+
+Belmont Seigniory, 36.
+
+Beluga Fishery on the St. Lawrence, 279-285.
+
+Bencoolen, India, 59.
+
+Berthier, 9, 69.
+
+Bic, 250.
+
+Bigot F., Intendant, 18, 280.
+
+Blackburn, Hugh, 54, 55.
+
+Bleakley, Mrs., 106.
+
+Bonaparte, Napoleon, 112, 129, 133, 155, 169.
+
+Bonneau, 10, 11, 109.
+
+Bonner, G.T., 219.
+
+Boucher, Pierre, 9.
+
+Bouchette, Mr., 141.
+
+Bougainville, Col., 29, 51, 259.
+
+Boulogne, 129.
+
+Bourdon, Jean, 8, 243.
+
+Bourret, Pere Alexis, 290.
+
+Bowen, Judge E., 149, 150, 163-7.
+
+Bowen, Mrs. E., 151.
+
+Boyd, General, 162.
+
+Brassard, 54.
+
+Breboeuf, 198.
+
+Brock, Gen. Sir I., 151, 153.
+
+Brosse, Pere de la, 287-9.
+
+Buchanan. Mr., 166.
+
+Burlington Heights, 156, 158, 161.
+
+Burlington Bay, 158, 159.
+
+Butler, Captain, 86.
+
+
+Cacouna, 88.
+
+Caldwell, Colonel, 84, 85, 87, 148.
+
+Cameron, Captain, 269.
+
+Campbell, Lieut. Alex., 261.
+
+Campbell, Lieut. Archibald, 261.
+
+Campbell, Capt John, 261.
+
+Cap a l'Aigle, 2, 11, 21, 238.
+
+Cap aux Oies, 2, 11.
+
+Cap Rouge, 259, 264.
+
+Cap Tourmente, 2, 87, 108, 109, 253, 255.
+
+Cape Diamond, 73-78, 270.
+
+Carignan Regiment, 9, 34, 243.
+
+Carleton, Sir Guy (Lord Dorchester) 22, 59, 64, 65, 69-78, 83, 206, 276.
+
+Carleton Island, 84-7, 148.
+
+Cartier, Jacques, 56, 244, 250, 279.
+
+Casgrain, Abbe H.R., 245, 281-285.
+
+Castle Dounie, 24.
+
+Chambly, 9.
+
+Champlain, Samuel de, 6, 7, 243.
+
+Chandler, General, 156.
+
+Chaperon, M., 224, 225.
+
+Chateau, Richer, 254-5.
+
+Chateauguay, Battle of, 161.
+
+Chaudiere River, 66.
+
+Chauncey, Commodore, 158.
+
+Chelmsford, 134.
+
+Cherry Valley, 86.
+
+Chicoutimi, 15.
+
+Chippewa, 155.
+
+Cimon family, 219.
+
+Clark, John, 102.
+
+Clive, Lord, 57.
+
+Colbert, 8.
+
+Columbo, India, 100, 101.
+
+Compain, Pere, 287-9.
+
+Company of New France, 7, 8.
+
+Comporte, Philippe Gaultier, Sieur de, 9-14, 223, 243.
+
+Comporte, La, 15, 16.
+
+Comporte, Lac a, 12, 229.
+
+Continental Congress, 60, 63.
+
+Contrecoeur, 89.
+
+Cook, Captain, 22.
+
+Coquart, Father Claude Godefroi, 16-18.
+
+Cornwallis, General, 91.
+
+Cox, Major, 276.
+
+Craig, Sir James, 135, 142, 150.
+
+Crysler's Farm, Battle of, 162.
+
+Culloden, Battle of, 23, 33, 48.
+
+
+Dalrymple, Col., 100.
+
+Dambourges, M., 77.
+
+D'Avezac, Editor of Cartier's Works, 243.
+
+Dean, Captain, 269.
+
+De Lass, 138.
+
+Detroit, 151, 155.
+
+_Diana_, the, 270.
+
+Dobie, Richard, 106.
+
+Dorchester, Lord, (See Carleton, Sir Guy).
+
+Doucet, Pere Narcisse, 290.
+
+Douglas, Lieut., 261.
+
+Douglass, Commodore, 276.
+
+Duchouquet, Pere C., 289.
+
+Dufour, Joseph, 16-18, 20, 56, 109.
+
+Duggan, E.J., 219.
+
+Duggan, W.E., 219.
+
+Duguay, Pere, 289.
+
+Dundass, 118.
+
+Durham, 127.
+
+
+East India Co'y, 57, 58.
+
+Edinburgh, 94, 95, 101, 119, 125, 127, 128, 133.
+
+Edinburgh Castle, 26, 169, 170.
+
+Elibank, Lord, 35.
+
+Emerson, Parson, 67.
+
+Emery, Christiana, (Mrs. Nairne), 56.
+
+Enos, Colonel, 67.
+
+
+_Fell_, the, 70.
+
+Fisher, Dr., 115.
+
+Fitzgibbon, Lieut, 156.
+
+Forbes, Duncan, of Culloden, 23.
+
+Fort Erie, 154.
+
+Fort George, 154-157, 160.
+
+Forty Mile Creek, 156, 159.
+
+Foucault, Seigniory of, 36.
+
+Foulon, Anse de, 256.
+
+Fraser, Alex., Jr., 252, 261, 267.
+
+Fraser, John Malcolm, 219, 249.
+
+Fraser, Malcolm, Seigneur of Mount Murray, 21, 28, 30-41, 49, 54, 55,
+    65, 74, 75, 82, 92, 93, 95, 101, 105, 106, 108, 114, 117, 120,
+    127-132, 136, 142-147, 149, 152, 158, 160, 165, 171, 178, 219,
+    222, "Journal," 249-271, 276.
+
+Fraser, Ensign Malcolm, killed, 267.
+
+Fraser, Simon, Lord Lovat, 24-26, 243, 267.
+
+Fraser, Colonel Simon, Commander of the 78th Regiment, 25, 26, 31, 32,
+    249, 251, 252, 261, 264-267.
+
+Fraser, Simon, Explorer, 26.
+
+Fraser, Simon, Captain, 261.
+
+Fraser, William, 219.
+
+Fraserville, Seigniory of, 39.
+
+Frenchtown, 154.
+
+Frontenac, 196.
+
+
+Gagnon, Mgr., 245.
+
+Gaspe, Philippe Aubert de, 109, 209-212, 245.
+
+Gaultier, Philippe, (See Comporte).
+
+Gerin, Leon, 244.
+
+Gibraltar, 129, 133, 134, 135, 136.
+
+Gilchrist, Mr., 47, 53, 55, 60, 61, 223, 225.
+
+Glasgow, 119.
+
+Goose, Cape, 2.
+
+Gordon, Lieut. Cosmo, 267.
+
+Gorham, Captain, 20, 34, 36, 251, 255.
+
+Graeme, General, 96.
+
+Gregorson, Ensign, 261.
+
+Gros, Jean, 225.
+
+"_Growler_", the, 160.
+
+
+Haldimand, General, 46, 83, 85, 87, 92.
+
+Hale, Mr. and Mrs., 149.
+
+Halifax, 150.
+
+Harrison, General, 155.
+
+Hazen, Captain, 265.
+
+Hazeur, Francois, 12, 13, 14.
+
+Hazeur, J.T., 15.
+
+Hazeur, P. de l'Orme, 15.
+
+Henry, Dr., 201, 223-227, 245.
+
+Hepburn, 42, 59, 114, 118, 121.
+
+Higham, Mrs., 219.
+
+Holmes, Admiral, 249.
+
+Hubert, Bishop of Quebec, 46
+
+Hudon, M., Jesuit, 198.
+
+Hudon, Pere, 290.
+
+Hudson Bay, 14, 279.
+
+Hull, General, 151.
+
+
+India, 96, 99, 100, 172.
+
+Isle aux Coudres, 2, 6, 46, 64, 250, 287-289.
+
+Isle aux Noix, 82, 83, 84, 91.
+
+Isle Verte, 289.
+
+
+Jena, Battle of, 129.
+
+Jervis, John, Lord St. Vincent, 22.
+
+Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 35.
+
+Johnston, Sir John, 85.
+
+Johnston, Sir William, 138.
+
+_Julia_, the, 160.
+
+
+Kamouraska, 89, 108, 211, 212, 224, 285.
+
+Keller, Pere, 289.
+
+Kennebec, River, 66.
+
+Ker, Alick, 126, 127, 135, 137.
+
+Ker, James, 98, 112, 114, 117, 118, 121, 125, 126, 133, 134, 137, 138,
+    144, 150, 169, 170.
+
+Ker, Mrs., 121.
+
+Kingston, 148, 151, 152, 153, 161.
+
+
+La Fouille, 10.
+
+La Grange, 56.
+
+La Motte-Saint-Heray, 10.
+
+La Potherie, 285.
+
+La Terriere, Dr., 141.
+
+Lake Champlain, 36, 82, 161.
+
+Lake Ontario, 9, 84, 148, 156, 161.
+
+Lake St. John, 15.
+
+Langan, Mrs., 106.
+
+Lanoraye, 10.
+
+Lauderdale, Earl of, 133.
+
+Lauzon, Seigniory of, 36, 210.
+
+Laverdiere, Editor of Champlain's Works, 243.
+
+Le Courtois, Pere, 143, 164, 166, 172, 193, 289.
+
+Leclercq, Pere, B.-E, 290.
+
+Le Maistre, Major, 244.
+
+Le Moine, Sir J.M., 243.
+
+Les Eboulements, 2, 14, 37, 46, 64, 109, 141, 287, 289.
+
+_Leo_, the, 159.
+
+_Leostoff_, the, 269, 270.
+
+Leslie, Miss C., 173, 221.
+
+Leveque, Pere, 289.
+
+Levis, 36.
+
+Levis, Marquis de, 32, 220, 264.
+
+Longueuil, 9.
+
+Lorette, 262.
+
+Lotbiniere, Pere de, 71.
+
+Louisbourg, 29, 42, 119, 129, 221, 250.
+
+Lovat, Baroness, 24.
+
+Lovat, Lord, (See Fraser, Simon).
+
+Lyman, Mr., 171.
+
+
+Mabane, Miss, 108.
+
+McCord, Mr., 141.
+
+McDonald, Capt. Donald, 265, 267.
+
+McDonald, Lieut. Hector, 267.
+
+McDonnell, Alex., 259.
+
+MacDonnell, Capt. John, 86, 259, 261.
+
+MacDonnell, Lieut. Ronald, 261.
+
+McGregor, Lieut., 271.
+
+MacKenzie, Sir Alex., 111.
+
+MacKenzie, Alex., author, 243.
+
+MacKenzie, Ensign, 261.
+
+MacKinnon, Lieut., 82-4.
+
+McLean, Col. Allan, 65, 275, 276.
+
+McNicol, John, (See Nairne, John McNicol).
+
+McNicol, Peter, 172, 173.
+
+McNicol, Mrs. Peter, 93, 107, 114, 130, 169, 172, 173, 219, 221, 290.
+
+McNicol, Thomas, 172.
+
+McPherson, Capt., 252, 259, 261.
+
+Madawaska, Seigniory of, 36.
+
+Madison, President, 150.
+
+Mailloux, Pere, 289.
+
+Maldon, 128.
+
+Malteste, notary, 52.
+
+Marchand, Louis, 12.
+
+Marcheteau, Pere, 289.
+
+Marie, Catherine de St. Augustin, 198, 199.
+
+Marlboro', India, 57.
+
+Masson, Mr., 106.
+
+Matthews, Captain, 85, 92, 244.
+
+Micmac Indians, 55.
+
+Mingan seigniory, 14.
+
+Mississaga Indians, 85.
+
+Mistassini, 15.
+
+Mohawk Valley, 85.
+
+Montcalm, Marquis de, 19, 241, 251, 252, 260.
+
+Montgomery, General R., 69-78, 273.
+
+Montgomery, Capt., 253, 254.
+
+Montmorency, 251, 253, 255.
+
+Morel, Abbe, 183.
+
+Morgan, 76.
+
+Morrison, Colonel, 162, 165.
+
+Mount Hermon Cemetery, 122, 123, 220.
+
+Mount Murray Seigniory, 21, 38.
+
+Mount Ventoux, 236.
+
+Mountain, Salter, 152.
+
+Munro, W. Bennett, 245.
+
+Murray, Alex., 35.
+
+Murray, Admiral George, 35.
+
+Murray, General James, 30-38, 42, 43, 51, 178, 207, 243, 254, 255, 258,
+    262, 272.
+
+
+Nairne, Anne, 56, 94, 125.
+
+Nairne, Baron, 27.
+
+Nairne, Christine, 93, 94, 99, 101, 106-108, 114, 121, 130, 138, 142,
+    145, 146, 150, 151, 164, 169, 171, 172.
+
+Nairne, John, First Seigneur of Murray Bay, Chap's. I-V., 178, 184, 195,
+    209, 219-223.
+
+Nairne, John, Mrs., 56, 149, 161, 165, 168, 172.
+
+Nairne, John, Captain, 93, 94, 95-101, 221, 277-279.
+
+Nairne, John Leslie, 174, 221.
+
+Nairne, John McNicol, 172-174, 218, 219.
+
+Nairne, Magdalen (See McNicol, Mrs. Peter).
+
+Nairne, Mary (Polly), 93, 101, 107, 121, 124, 126, 138, 142, 147, 160,
+    169, 172.
+
+Nairne, Miss, 27, 101, 117, 273.
+
+Nairne, Robert, 57-59.
+
+Nairne, Captain Thomas, 93, 101, 102, 107, 121, 124-167, 220, 221, 232.
+
+Neill, Mr., of Bana, 259.
+
+Nelson, Lord, 114, 153, 205.
+
+Newfoundland Regiment, 139, 147, 143.
+
+New Orleans, Battle at, 170.
+
+Niagara, 148, 151, 154-156.
+
+Niagara Falls, 155.
+
+Niagara River, 148, 154.
+
+Noel, Jacques, 207.
+
+Northumberland County, 115, 141.
+
+
+_Oneida_, the, 153.
+
+Orleans, Island of, 1, 253, 255.
+
+
+Panet, Louis, 225.
+
+Papineau, L.J., 205, 218.
+
+Paquet, Pere Raphael, 289.
+
+Parker, Sir Hyde, 114, 153.
+
+Parsons' House, 82.
+
+Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 23, 26, 34.
+
+Pitt, William, 112, 118.
+
+Pius VIII., Pope, 172.
+
+Plassey, Battle of, 57.
+
+Plenderleath, Colonel, 163, 166.
+
+Point Levi, 80, 250, 251, 253, 255, 256, 261, 263.
+
+Pointe au Fer, 82, 83.
+
+Pointe au Pic, 47, 104, 228, 236, 281.
+
+Pointe aux Trembles, 15.
+
+"Porpoise" Fishery (See Beluga).
+
+Pres de Ville Barrier, 75.
+
+Prescott, 152, 153.
+
+Prevost, Sir George, 150.
+
+Procter, General, 154, 171.
+
+
+Quebec Act, 59-61.
+
+Quebec, Protestant Bishop of, 48, 50, 165.
+
+Quebec, Roman Catholic Bishop of, 45, 51.
+
+Queenston Heights, 151, 153.
+
+
+Reeve, Colonel, 219.
+
+Reeve, John Fraser, 219.
+
+Reeve, Mrs., 219.
+
+Richelieu, Robert, 70.
+
+Riedesel, General, 89, 91.
+
+Riverin, 13.
+
+Riviere du Loup, 36, 39.
+
+Riviere Noire, 37, 226.
+
+Riviere Ouelle, 183, 280, 281, 283, 285.
+
+Roderick, Lieut., 259.
+
+Ross, Mr., 43.
+
+Ross, Captain, 254, 259.
+
+Roy, J.E., 244.
+
+_Royal George_, the, 148, 151.
+
+
+Sackett's Harbour, 161.
+
+Saguenay River, 5, 183, 228, 255.
+
+Saguenay County, 172.
+
+Saint Anne de Beaupre, 64, 254.
+
+Saint Charles River, 257, 258, 259, 260.
+
+Sainte Foy, 73, 259, 262, 264.
+
+Sainte Irenee, 233.
+
+Saint Jean Seigniory, 36.
+
+Saint Joachim, 253.
+
+Saint Matthew's Church, Quebec, 219.
+
+St. Roch's, Quebec, 76, 88.
+
+St. Roch, 88.
+
+Sans Bruit Seigniory, 36.
+
+Sault au Matelot, 76, 77.
+
+Schomberg, Capt., 270.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 27, 170.
+
+Sewell, Mr., 166.
+
+Sicily, 137, 138.
+
+Siegfried, Andre, 245.
+
+Sillery, 264.
+
+Smith, Justin H., 244.
+
+Sorel, 9, 90, 91.
+
+Soumande, Pierre, 12.
+
+Stadacona, 5.
+
+Sterling, 56.
+
+Stevenson, James, 119.
+
+Stewart, Andrew, 172.
+
+Stewart, Lieut Chas., 33.
+
+Stewart, Mr., 107.
+
+Stoney Creek, 156.
+
+Stuart, Prince Charles, 22, 27.
+
+Sulte, B., 243.
+
+Swanton, Capt, 270.
+
+Syracuse, 137, 138.
+
+
+Tache, Madame, 211, 212.
+
+Tadousac, 6, 7, 14, 15, 19, 88, 183, 228, 287-289.
+
+Talon, Jean, 8, 11.
+
+Taschereau, Hon G., 106.
+
+Ten Mile Creek, 159.
+
+Tetu, Mgr. H., 15, 245.
+
+Thames River, Ontario, 155.
+
+Thompson, James, 244.
+
+Three Rivers, 69, 150.
+
+Toronto, 148, 155, 159.
+
+Trafalgar, Battle of, 129, 205.
+
+Tremblay, 109.
+
+
+Usburn, Mr., 106.
+
+
+_Vanguard_, the, 270.
+
+Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 34.
+
+Vercheres, 9, 89.
+
+Villeneuve, Joseph, 53.
+
+
+Wall, Captain, 152.
+
+Walpole, Sir R., 23.
+
+Warren, John, 119.
+
+Washington, 155.
+
+Washington, George, 65.
+
+Waterloo, Battle of, 205.
+
+Wauchope, Mr., 277.
+
+Wellington, Duke of, 205.
+
+West Indies, 95.
+
+Wilkes, John, 35.
+
+Wilkinson, General, 156.
+
+Winchester, General, 154.
+
+Winder, General, 156.
+
+Wingfield, Major, 223.
+
+Wolfe, General James, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 29, 31, 66, 241, 252, 260.
+
+Wolfe's Cove, 29, 68, 75, 256.
+
+Wooster, General, 81.
+
+Wuertele, F.C., 244.
+
+
+Yeo, Sir James, 154, 156-159.
+
+York, Duke of, 96.
+
+York (Toronto), 148, 155, 156, 159, 160.
+
+Yorktown, 91.
+
+Yukon River, 279.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs
+by George M. Wrong
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CANADIAN MANOR AND ITS SEIGNEURS ***
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