to quiet the disorders that arose, or to induce the Canadians in this early stage of the dispute, to take arms to assist in the subjugation of the other colonies. They murmured loudly at the measures of the British government; they refused peremptorily to act against the United States, and several of the principal English inhabitants corresponded with some of the members of Congress; and encouraged the measures that were taken to bring the province of Canada into an union with the thirteen colonies.
Thus it required no small intrigue to instigate even the savages who delight in blood, to the commission of unprovoked hostilities, which would interrupt the traffic carried on between them and the frontiers of the other provinces. It has been justly observed,
that the introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of civilized nations, is a measure pregnant with shame and mischief, which the interest of a moment may impel, but which is reprobated by the best principles of humanity and reason.*
But these were not the principles on which the American war was conducted. Congress had authentic information, that every method was used to induce the savages [251] to take up the hatchet against the Americans. Several conferences had been held the preceding summer, with many of their chiefs assembled at Montreal. This was in consequence of the machinations of colonel Johnson, a famous Indian partisan in the last war, whose influence among them was very extensive. In these conferences he gave each of them a war belt and a tomahawk; invited them to drink the blood, and feast on the body of a Bostonian, and to sing the war-song over a roasted bullock and a pipe of wine he had prepared for the purpose; but several of them declined either to eat, drink, or sing the barbarous song. They afterwards delivered up the black belt with the hatchet depictured thereon, to some of the American officers.*
These transactions were considered as incontestable proof, that administration was determined to employ as their allies, the fierce and numerous hordes of the wilderness, to subdue and butcher the Americans, even before they had thrown off their allegiance to the crown of Britain. It had also been recently discovered, that governor Carleton had received a commission, authorizing him to muster and arm all persons residing within the province of Canada, and,
as occasion should require, to march and embark the levies to any of the provinces of [252] America, to pursue and prosecute either by sea or land, all enemies, pirates, or rebels, either in or out of the province; and if it should so please God, them to vanquish, to take, and so apprehended, according to law, them to put to death, or to preserve alive, at his discretion.†
A detail of the sufferings of one family will evince the wretched situation of all in that province who had the courage to complain of the measures of administration, or indulged a favorable opinion of the exertions of the other colonies. The singular mode of bending the minds of men of liberal opinions to the designs of government, was first experimented on Mr. Walker, an English gentleman of fortune and abilities, who had been many years a resident at Montreal. His avowed dislike of the Quebec bill, drew on him the resentment of the officers of government, and involved him in altercation and danger. He had, in answer to the servile maxim— “Qui le roi, est maitre”—repeated by one Rouvelle, coolly replied, that “with regard to monsieur Rouvelle, it might by so, as he ate his majesty’s bread;” but added, “I deny that the king is my master: I respect him as my lawful sovereign, and am ready to pay [253] due obedience to his lawful commands; but I cannot acknowlege any one as my master while I live by my own industry; when I receive pay from the king, perhaps my acknowledgments may be equally submissive.” Rouvelle immediately informed general Carleton of this conversation; his prudence was commended, and he was soon after appointed one of the judges of the supreme court at Montreal. This appointment was equally astonishing to the French inhabitants, as it was disgusting to the English. Men of all descriptions had a very ill opinion of Rouvelle. The recent conversation between him and Mr. Walker was misrepresented and exaggerated. The partisans of the crown and the officers of the army were highly exasperated against him; and soon after, resentment was carried so far as to attempt the assassination of Mr. Walker.
A number of soldiers under the command of a captain Disney, entered his house in the evening, when at supper with a few friends. On a sudden noise at the door of the hall, Mrs. Walker imagined it to be some Canadians, who had been the preceding day on business with Mr. Walker, as an officer of justice. Without any hesitation she pronounced entrez; but to her inexpressible surprise, the next moment she saw through the glasses of the inner door, a number of faces, some of them blacked, others covered with a vizard of crape, all rising on the steps, and rushing with [254] precipitation into the room: in an agony of surprise she exclaimed, “Good God, this is murder!” Mr. Walker sat with his back to the door, and before he had time to rise, he received from one of the ruffians, a violent stroke of a broad sword on his head; he attempted to recover his arms and defend himself, but wounded in a most cruel manner, he sunk motionless on the floor, when one of the villains kneeled on his breast, and cut off his right ear, while he so far retained his senses as to hear one of them say, “damn him, he is dead.”
After recovering from his wounds, he commenced a civil process against Disney and his party. The crime was proved with all its atrocious aggravations, but justice had not its operation, either in compensation to the sufferer, or punishment of the guilty. Mr. Walker finding himself unsafe in the city, retired to his country-house, determined to amuse himself with his books and his farm, without farther attention to political or public scenes; but his persecution was not at an end; he had not long resided in his villa, before he was molested in a still more barbarous manner.
A party of thirty soldiers was sent by governor Carleton, to bring him dead or alive to Quebec. They surrounded his house just before day, and summoned him to surrender. Instead of a compliance, he courageously endeavoured [255] to defend himself and his family, until the party without set fire to his house in several places, when he was obliged to escape the flames by throwing himself from the third story. In the fall from a window of such a height, one of his legs was broken, which left him to the mercy of his antagonists, who made him their prisoner, and conducted him to Quebec, where he was loaded with irons, denied the use of pen, ink, and paper, and forbidden even the light of a taper in his darksome cell.
Mrs. Walker, a lady of great elegance and sensibility, had in the terror of the night, leaped from a second story window, and walked through the snow till exhausted by fear and fatigue, she was overtaken by one of the party, who had the compassion to throw his cloak over her, and conduct her to a neighbouring house. She soon after made her escape from that part of the country over the lakes, accompanied by the commissioners, congress had some time before sent on, to confer with and secure the interest of the Canadians. The boat in which she crossed one of those inland seas, passed another almost within call, which conveyed her husband a prisoner to Quebec.
It has already been observed, that an address had been sent by Congress to the inhabitants of Canada, couched in nervous, friendly and pathetic terms, reminding them of their common [256] danger, and urging them to a union with the other colonies in defence of their common rights. But the mixture of French, British, American, and savage inhabitants of that country, rendered it very uncertain how far the other colonies might depend on the aid or friendship of the Canadians. Congress apprized of the situation of affairs there, judged it prudent to endeavour to engage the people of all descriptions in that quarter, more firmly to the interest of the union. It was thought a favorable crisis for this purpose, when the flower of the British troops then in America, were shut up in Boston; and when the governors of the southern provinces, interrupted in their negociations with the Indians, had taken refuge on board the king’s ships, either from real or imagined personal danger. This was an important business, as whoever possesses Canada will in a great measure command the numerous tribes beyond the lakes. A respectable delegation was sent to Montreal, to treat with the white inhabitants, and as far as possible to conciliate or secure the copper-colored nations.
The importance of possessing Canada, strongly impressed the minds at this time, of gentlemen of the first penetration. A very respectable committee was sent by congress into the country, with Dr. Franklin at the head of the mission; whose talents as a statesman, perfect knowledge of the French language, extensive [257] literary acquaintance with that nation, urbanity of manners, courteous deportment, united with a prudent reserve, marked