|
My ‘prenticeship I past
where my leader breathed his last,
When the bloody die was cast on the heights of Abram;
I served out my trade when the gallant game was play’d,
And the moro’ low was laid at the sound of the drum.
-- BURNS
We’re tall as the oak on
the mount of the vale,
Are swift as the roe which the hound doth assail;
As the full moon in autumn our shields do appear,
Minerva would dread to encounter our spear.
Quebec and Cape Breton,
the pride of old France,
In their troops fondly boasted till we did advance;
But when our claymores they saw us produce,
Their courage did fail, and they sued for a truce.
-- "The Garb of old
Gaul."
"Oh! why left I my
hame,
Why did I cross the deep?
Oh! why left I the land
Where my forefathers sleep?
I sigh for Scotia’s shore,
And I gaze across the sea;
But I canna get a blink
O’ my ain countrie!
There’s a hope for every
woe,
And a balm for every pain;
But the first joys o’ our youth
Come never back again!
There’s a track upon the deep,
And a path across the sea,
But the weary ne’er return
To their ain countrie.
-- ROBT. GILFILLAN *
The early colonization
period in English history affords but few Scottish names, for the reason
either that the people of Scotland had enough to do at home or that they
were denied any outlet, save such as they might make for themselves to
the European continent. Up to the time of the union of 1707, the laws of
England effectually dwarfed northern commerce, and prevented the
existence of a Scottish mercantile marine. Neither as explorers nor as
settlers do we hear of any Scots about or in America, except such waifs
and strays as were always floating about the world from "Auld
Scotia." Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and Raleigh were all
Englishmen, and the first attempt at settlement in what is now British
North America was made in Elizabeth’s reign by an Englishman. It was
in 1583 that the brave Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter
Raleigh laid the foundation of British rule in North America on the
harbour of St. John’s, Newfoundland. He never reached the mainland,
and when returning, his little vessel, with its hundred souls, foundered
in the Atlantic. To the vessel which sailed near him his last recorded
words of courageous hope were these: "Be not afraid; Heaven is as
near by water as by land."
The Scot appears upon the
scene in the next century in rather an imposing and romantic aspect. The
French had been beforehand in Acadia as in Quebec; and the greedy eyes
of a Virginian adventurer, Samuel Argall, had been cast upon the French
settlement on Penobscot Bay. Having resolved to oust the intruders, as
he chose to term them, he sailed away northward to displace the fleur
de lis of the Bourbons, and hoist the British flag there. This was
no difficult matter; and Argall soon discovered the existence of the
Port Royal settlement. Sailing on he destroyed the buildings on the
Island of St. Croix, crossed the Bay of Fundy and made short work of
Port Royal. This was in 1614; Argall was knighted and made Governor of
Virginia. New England had been laid out on a magnificent scale— after
the fashion of monarchs—extending from the 40th to the 48th parallels
of latitude. Now, there was a Scot named Sir William Alexander, a poet
of lively imagination, and also a patriot, whose love of country took a
tinge from the warm colouring of his fancy. A friend of William
Drummond, of Hawthornden, in itself a great distinction—he had
composed "Monarchick" and other tragedies and, in this very
year 1614, there appeared at Edinburgh what Mr. Chambers calls "his
most meritorious production,"—Doomsday or the Great Day of
Judgment.** For this literary feat, or in consideration of services
to come, Alexander was knighted, and he at once, as became him,
abandoned poetry for chivalrous emprise. There was a New England in the
making; why should he not be the founder of a New Scotland? In 1621, he
obtained the charter of Nova Scotia from James I., and the scheme he had
devised proves that Alexander well knew that his master’s vulnerable
spot was in his pocket. *** His proposition was that every purchaser of
six thousand acres, who paid one hundred and fifty pounds cash, should
have a knight baronetcy of Nova Scotia thrown into the bargain.
Political troubles at home prevented the inception of this plan before
the accession of Charles I., who, in 1625, created the order and
sanctioned Sir William’s arrangement of the territory. There were to
be two divisions, Caledonia the modern Nova Scotia, and Alexandria,
consisting of the land from the Bay of Fundy to the Bay of Chaleurs,
bounded on the west by a line drawn from the mouth of the St. Croix
northward. The Tweed was to be the name of the latter river, since it
separated New England from New Scotland; the present St. John river was
to be the Clyde, and from the east coast of Alexandria, issued the
Forth.+ The colonization scheme failed; not because Alexander was not
perfectly honest and earnest, but because he had embarked upon it
without counting the cost. Attempts to settle were actually made more
than once, but defeated, chiefly through the determined resistance of
the French ruler. Emigrants were attracted thither from 1623 to 1628,
when Sir David Kerkt, Kirkt or Kirtk, whose real name was Kirk, took
Port Royal, the modern Annapolis. In 1632, after Alexander in despair
had disposed of a large portion of his property, Charles I. ceded the
entire territory to Louis XIII. Sir William Alexander went back to the
muses, and in 1640, passed away as Earl of Stirling—a title about
which there was a contest some fifty years ago, when a fictitious claim
was set up to it.
Sir David Kerkt, or by
whatever other name he may be called, was, in plain English, David Kirke,
French by birth, but the son of a Scot, naturalized in France, and
driven out of it, in course of time, for his Huguenot opinions. David,
who had two brothers, Louis and Thomas, both distinguished in the
Acadian and Canadian struggles, was dispatched by Charles I to seize all
the French forts on the sea, and to capture Quebec. All these tasks he
accomplished to the letter, with the insignificant exception of the Cape
Sable settlement. Port Royal, the capital, shared the fate of St. Croix
and Pentagort, in 1628, and Kirkt seems to have intended an immediate
surprise and assault at Quebec. Reaching Tadoussac, on the St. Lawrence
he summoned Champlain to surrender the citadel, and was met, as might
have been expected by any one who knew the gallant Frenchman, with a
haughty defiance. Kirkt was making his way home to refit, when Roquement,
commanding the squadron conveying the emigrant and provision vessels of
the year, rashly and directly, contrary, to orders, went out of his way
to fight Kirkt, and was utterly defeated. Samuel Champlain possessed
indomitable courage, and great fertility of resource; but his heart must
have sunk within him when he anticipated a terrible winter, with the
certain knowledge that his supplies had been cut off, and that the enemy
would appear before the capital early in spring.++ In the following
year, an earnest appeal was being made to France, when the envoy
dispatched with it met a vessel conveying the news that peace had been
concluded: between France and England. Eustache Boulle rejoiced to be
able to carry the intelligence to Quebec, was on his way back, when his
barque was seized by Kirkt, bent on completing the work he had begun in
the previous season. The Admiral had no fighting to do; the defences
were not strong, and both the garrison and the little settlement were on
the verge of starvation. Champlain could only insist that peace had been
proclaimed and Kirkt stoutly refused to credit the story. In the end
there was a capitulation, on honourable terms for the gallant Frenchman,
and the flag of England was thrown to the breeze, for the first time,
over the Gibraltar of America. Louis Kirkt became Governor, by his
brother’s appointment, and it is conceded by all authorities that he
displayed the greatest courtesy and humanity to the suffering people.
Probably, had it not been for the vehement and persevering importunity
of the brave Champlain, the French government would never have taken the
trouble of insisting upon the restoration of Canada; Sir W. Phipps would
never have suffered defeat in one attack on Quebec, and Wolfe would
never have triumphed gloriously in another. As it was David Kirke, whose
life has been written by a descendant, the son of a Scot, that is, a
Scot born in France, must have the credit of having first placed the
ancient capital under the sway of Great Britain.
The first entry in the
earliest extant registry of christenings was made in October, 1621—that
of Eustache Martin son of Abraham Martin dit l’Ecossais—"called
the Scot," pilot of the St. Lawrence—and of Marie Langlois. This
old pilot left by his daughters numerous descendants; in the Journals of
the Jesuits he is known as Maitre Abraham and what is more to the
purpose, as we have already noted he gave his name—the Christian name
by which he was best known—to the celebrated plains of Abraham upon
which the fate of Canada was decided in 1759.+++ "Master
Abraham" appears to have acquired—no difficult matter in those
days—considerable landed estate such as it was; but though the plains
have won posthumous reputation for their owner, it does not appear that
they were the source of much profit to him during his 1ife-time. They
were, rough and covered with boulders, a century and more after he was
laid to rest.
It is, of course, outside
the purpose of this work, to give even the meagrest outline of the
French regime, and we may therefore at once approach the scene when, for
the first time Canada was thrown open to British activity and
enterprise. The story of the taking of Quebec has been told by so many
historians that it seems unnecessary to tell it again. The Scots
certainly contributed something more than their share to the result, and
it may be well to ascertain and gauge their work more clearly than the
historians are required to do. Reference has already been made to the
suggestion of Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, that the Highland fighting
strength should be drafted into the military service of the Crown; and
also to the characteristic sagacity with which the elder Pitt reduced
the scheme to practice.*+ Of the regiments which took the foremost part
in the conquest of Canada, the most famous is the Fraser Highlanders,
who scaled the rock at Quebec and drew up, to fight and conquer, on the
plains of Abraham. The history of the
old
78th regiment is tolerably well known to most readers. Simon Fraser,
its Lieutenant Colonel, was the son of the fickle and unfortunate Lord
Lovat, who perished on Tower Hill in 1747 for his share in the Jacobite
rising of ‘45. Young Fraser had been led, somewhat reluctantly, into
the rebellion in his youth. He was without property of any sort; and
yet, when urged to raise a regiment, eight hundred clansmen obeyed his
call, and to these were added six hundred by the country gentry and
those who were to receive commissions in the regiment. In looking over a
list of the officers gazetted in January 1757, it is observable that
there are sixteen Frasers, five of them Simons; four Alexanders, and
about the same number of Johns; of the other surnames, Macdonell,
Stewart, Cameron, Rose, Macneil, Macdonald, Chisholm, Maclean and
Macpherson are prominent. The first service of the Frasers was under the
gallant Wolfe at the taking of Louisbourg, the French stronghold on Cape
Breton.
With the Frasers at the
first approach to Louisbourg, were the gallant 42nd, "The
Black Watch," renowned in military story, wherever the British
flag has been borne to victory, for more than a hundred and thirty
years. A list of the chief actions in which this splendid regiment has
taken part, is a military history of England in symbol. To mention but a
few of them, what a series of chapters glorious for the most part, are
epitomized in the words, Fontenoy,*++ Flanders, Ticonderoga, Martinique,
Havannah, Egypt, Corunna, Fuentes d’Onor, Nivelle, Orthès, Toulouse,
Waterloo, Alma, Sevastopol, Lucknow, Ashantee! When General Abercromby
succeeded the Earl of Loudoun as commander in North America, in 1758,
three expeditions were set on foot, one against Louisbourg, another
against Ticonderoga, and the third against Fort du Quesne. The 42nd was
engaged in the second of these, and covered itself with glory.
"With a mixture of esteem, grief and envy" (wrote an officer
of the 55th), I consider the great loss and immortal glory acquired by
the Scots Highlanders in the late bloody affair. * * They appeared like
lions breaking from their chains. Their intrepidity was rather animated
than damped by seeing their comrades fall on every side." On that
occasion the loss of this gallant regiment was 8 officers, 9 sergeants
and 297 men killed, and 17 officers, 10 sergeants, and 30 soldiers
wounded. In the assault and taking of Fort du Quesne, another Highland
regiment took the foremost part — the 77th, or Montgomery’s. This
regiment, formed in 1757, by the elder Pitt,*+++ like the Frasers,
received its name from the Colonel, Archibald Montgomerie, son of the
Earl of Eglintoun. They sailed to America with the Frasers, and were
sent by Abercromby, under the command of General Forbes, with other
forces, to reduce Fort du Quesne, on the Ohio. The journey was a long
and wearisome one from Philadelphia, over mountain and swamp, or through
the pathless wilderness. The Fort was taken without much difficulty, and
its name changed to Fort Pitt, there where Pittsburg stands to day—recording,
in its name, the genius of the great statesman who was the soul of the
war.
The fatal blow to French
rule in America, the other expeditions being subsidiary, was dealt at
the heart of New France, by Louisbourg and the St. Lawrence. It was at
the beginning of June, 1758, that the British fleet made its appearance
in Gabarus Bay, to the south-westward of Louisbourg. The weather was
fearfully rough and the shore rocky, rugged and precipitous; to add to
the danger and perplexity, there was a heavy fog. It was not until the
8th that a successful attempt to land was made under fire from the
batteries. On the 12th General Wolfe with his Highlanders and flankers
seized Lighthouse Point across the harbour to the north-east, and this
made the investment complete. The lines were then gradually contracted
until there was nothing for the besieged but to break out or surrender.
On the 9th July, a sortie, in meeting which Captain, the Earl of
Dundonald, was killed, completely failed. The firing and explosion of
French war-ships burnt nearly all the vessels in the harbour, the
batteries were silenced one after another and the fortifications
terribly shattered. On the 26th, the town surrendered and was taken
possession of next day by Colonel Lord Rollo. The inhabitants were
transported to France, the soldiers and sailors, 5,637 in number were
sent home as prisoners of war, the fortifications of Louisbourg were
razed to the ground, and Acadia passed away from beneath the sway of
France forever.
In the following year the
grand attack was made upon the ancient capital. According to the plan of
campaign previously arranged, Amherst was to have advanced by Lake
Champlain, upon Montreal; Prideaux and Johnson, after taking Niagara,
were to have proceeded eastward and their forces having formed a
junction with Amherst’s were to have hurried to the assistance of
Wolfe at Quebec. These arrangements completely failed. Amherst, baffled
by Bourlamaque and, by the stormy weather on the lake, at last went into
winter quarters at Crown Point. Prideaux and Johnson laid siege to Fort
Niagara, but the former was killed by a cannon-ball and, though the
latter bravely defeated and almost annihilated the enemy in the field,
and took the fort, he rested upon his laurels and attempted no advance.
Wolfe, on the other hand, had had a remarkably prosperous voyage up the
St. Lawrence and appeared before Quebec with about seven thousand men.
It was in June, 1759, that the fleet anchored before the city, and an
anxious month of watching and expectancy followed. At last, wearied out
with hope deferred, and seeing no prospect of reinforcement by Amherst
or Johnson, Wolfe determined to land and attack the enemy, and force him
into fight. Montcalm and De Levis had 12,000 men under their command;
they were protected by formidable works from the Montmorenci to the St.
Charles, and beyond the latter rose majestically the rock with its
diadem of ramparts. On the left side of the Montmorenci, Wolfe had
erected batteries and established a camp; Moncton was posted at Point
Levi, whence his artillery poured a constant storm of shot and shell
into the upper and lower towns, burning hundreds of buildings, public
and private, whilst Townshend and Murray occupied the extreme west point
of the Island of Orleans. Of the fleet, Admiral Holmes’ division had
managed to pass the fire of the citadel and was stationed on the river
opposite the cove where Wolfe was ultimately to land; the other squadron
under Admiral Saunders, a Scot, by the way, rode in the channel between
Point Levi and that point of the island which stretches out into the
basin towards the city. On the 31st July, every preparation having been
made, and the 1500 barges ready, a heavy cannonade was commenced from
Point Levi and the batteries east of the Montmorenci, under cover of
which the crossing was effected. Montcalm, after being for a time
perplexed, soon discovered the purpose of the British and rapidly moved
his forces towards Beauport Plains. Some of Wolfe’s boats were struck
before they touched shore; and some of them grounded but a landing was
effected, and the devoted band moved up the rough declivity. The
Louisbourg Grenadiers and the Royal Americans first landed, and their
orders were to form in four distinct bodies, and not to begin operations
until the first brigade should have arrived to support them. Without
waiting for their comrades, however, they began a confused, though
impetuous, attack upon the entrenchments. The enemy’s fire, steady and
well-aimed, at once disconcerted and threw them into disorder. By this
time the first brigade had landed and were ready to commence the
assault, but the rashness of the advance had completely defeated the
enterprise, and Wolfe re-passed the river, chagrined and disheartened.
In this unhappy attempt the British loss was five hundred and
forty-three, killed, wounded and missing, of whom about one hundred were
Highlanders. Colonel Fraser and Captains Macpherson and Simon Fraser
were among the wounded. The disappointed commander bitterly upbraided
the men who had caused this untoward result of his matured plan. These
are Wolfe’s words: "The check which the grenadiers met yesterday
will, it is hoped, be a lesson to them for the time to come. Such
impetuous irregular, and unsoldierlike proceedings destroy all order,
make it impossible for the commanders to form any disposition for
attack, and put it out of the general’s power to execute his plan. The
grenadiers could not suppose that they alone could beat the French army;
and therefore it was necessary that the corps under brigadiers Moncton
and Townshend should have time to join, that the attack might be
general. The very first fire of the enemy was sufficient to repulse men
who had lost all sense of order and military discipline. Amherst’s
(the 15th) and the Highlanders alone, by the soldier-like and cool
manner they were formed in, would undoubtedly have beaten back the whole
Canadian army if they had ventured to attack them"+* (Miles’ History
of Canada p. 386.)
It is very probable, as
Dr. Miles contends, that the affair at Montmorenci was by no means the
important battle and victory it is represented to be in Garneau’s History,
and elsewhere. Still it had all the temporary effect of a serious
defeat, since it disconcerted Wolfe’s plans, and worse still,
undermined his health, or, at any rate, ripened the seeds of that
disease which had begun so early to sap his vitality. It was necessary,
now, to devise a new plan of operations, and the one eventually adopted
was, according to some, suggested by General Townshend. The attempt to
attack from Beauport was at once abandoned, as well from its difficulty
as because the enemy was fully on the alert. Wolfe, therefore, withdrew
all his forces across the river, and concentrated them at Point Levi.
Meanwhile General Murray had been sent up the river with twelve hundred
men, partly to destroy some French vessels which had escaped, and to
draw into combat any stray detachments of the enemy that might be met,
but chiefly, to open communication with Amherst. It was soon ascertained
that no present aid need be expected from him, as he had yet to dislodge
Bougainville, who was strongly entrenched on the Isle-aux-Noix. Nothing
remained, therefore, but to attempt the dashing attack from the
neighbourhood of Sillery, a few miles west of Cape Diamond. The task was
beset by danger and difficulties, but it was necessary to make the
attempt, or abandon the assault for that season. Accordingly, having
dispatched the fleet, under Saunders, so as to cover the landing force,
Wolfe conveyed his troops in boats, in the darkness of night, to the
landing-place.+** The landing was effected without opposition, and the
arduous ascent of the steep heights commenced. The Frasers were in the
front, and scrambled up as noiselessly as might be, aided by bushes and
jagged points of rocks, to the summit. The guard were secured, and
before the sun rose on the morning of the 13th, nearly five thousand men
had encamped upon the plains of Abraham, to conquer or die, for retreat
was now out of the question. Meanwhile the gallant Montcalm was entirely
deceived by a feint at Beauport, and naturally supposed that all was
safe in the west. Daylight undeceived him, and with that rapid decision
which distinguished him, he faced about to meet this new and more
serious danger. His resolution was taken at once to leave his lines at
Beauport and give the English battle on the Plains.+*** Some difference
of opinion exists in reference to the numbers engaged in this famous
action. Garneau says that the English were two to one; Knox, and others
who were present, state the French at 7,000 or 7,500, and the British at
4,800. There is no need to describe a conflict which has been so often
sketched before. It was sharp, short and decisive. The steady and
unerring fire of the British musketry, staggered the advancing French
line at the outset; Murray’s troops soon broke the centre,
"when," says a contemporary account, "the Highlanders,
taking to their broadswords, fell in among them with irresistible
impetuosity, and drove them back with great slaughter." On the
French right, the contest was more vigorously carried on, the Canadians
having the advantage of shelter from some houses; but their left and
centre were destroyed. At this juncture Bougainville appeared on the
scene, with two thousand fresh troops, but Townshend compelled him to
retire, without much difficulty. Meanwhile both the gallant commanders
had fought their last battle. Wolfe had been wounded early in the fight;
but even a second shot failed to drive him from his post. At last,
struck in the breast, lying on the ground in the arms of a lieutenant,
he heard the cry "They run! they run!" "Who
run?"" he earnestly enquired and, when told that it was the
French, his words, the last which came from that noble breast, were,
"What! do they run already? Pray one of you go to Colonel Burton,
and tell him to march Webb’s regiment with all speed to St. Charles
River, to cut off the retreat of the fugitives from the bridge. Now, God
be praised, I die happy!" Montcalm, the victor of Carillon, only
the year before, had also been twice wounded, and, at last, when his
surgeons were asked to declare at once whether his wounds were mortal,
and they had pronounced them to be so, he said, "I am glad of it;
then I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." The flight
of the French forces was precipitate, and "such was the ardour with
which the Highlanders, supported by the 58th regiment, pressed the rear
of the fugitives—having thrown away their muskets and taken to their
broadswords—that, had the distance been greater from the field of
battle to the walls, the whole French army would have been inevitably
destroyed. As it was, the troops of the line had been almost cut to
pieces when their pursuers were forced to retire by the fire from the
ramparts." This may account for the large number of killed and
wounded, considering the short duration of the conflict. The British
loss was about five hundred killed and wounded, and the French at least
twice as many, and probably more. The Highlanders lost, altogether:
killed eighteen, and about one hundred and fifty wounded. Montcalm’s
views of the fighting qualities of his enemy were expressed, in a few
words, as he lay dying: "If I could survive this wound, I would
engage to beat three times the number of such forces as I commanded this
morning, with a third of such troops as were opposed to me."**+
After the battle, the
British forces were engaged in fortifying the ground they had gained.
The sailors and marines were employed in making redoubts, and in three
days there was an entrenched camp on the plains, with redoubts and
batteries in the foreground, furnished with sixty pieces of heavy
artillery and fifty-eight mortars. Vaudreuil, the Governor, the infamous
Bigot, Intendant, and Bougainville, on the evening of the battle met to
deliberate. De Levis, the only man of capacity, was at Montreal, and the
vigour of his courage, as well as of his intellect, were not at the
service of this terrified council of war. When he arrived on the 17th of
September, it was too late. The army had been withdrawn to
Pointe-aux-Trembles, and the garrison in the citadel was so reduced by
starvation and desertion as to be on the point of surrender. The
responsibility was thrown upon De Ramezay, the commandant who had been
left with nearly 1800 men to sink or swim as he chose. In fact, his
troops seconded the demand for an immediate capitulation. It is
difficult to say what De Ramsay—for that is the proper orthography of
his name—could have done other than he did Garneau says**++ that
"De Ramesay" interpreted too freely De Vaudreuil’s
directions not to abide an assault," but to surrender; the fact is
he obeyed them to the letter. The town was at the utmost extremity from
panic and hunger; he had not the means of giving the force under his
command half rations for two days, and they, to use his own words,
"refused to fight the enemy." On the 18th of September, he
surrendered on extremely liberal terms to General Townshend.
The commandant’s name
had been at first the indubitably Scottish Ramsay. It was so spelt in
France, and there seems no reason why our modern Canadian historians
should persist in presenting it under a French disguise, which is merely
the measure of their orthographical weakness. This Ramsay was nearly
related to that other Chevalier de Ramsay, the author of the Letters
of Cyrus and the biographer of Fenelon, to whom reference was made
in the last chapter. The commandant’s family was of the good old
fighting stock of North Britain, and he was not the man to shrink from
danger and death, had there been anything better than foolhardiness in
the risk. He lost three brothers in the service; the eldest was killed
in battle at Rio Janeiro; the second was murdered by the Cherokees; and
the third perished by the shipwreck of Le Chameau. **+++ There
can be no doubt that he belonged to the old Franco Scottish line already
alluded to; and he was not alone. There were many who had emigrated to
France at the Revolution, leaving sons who found their way from their
adopted land to its colony. The Jacobites in the Canadian army were not
a few.++* Some names, famous in Scottish and French history have come
down to us. Amongst them the Comte de Douglas, evidently allied to the
Duke of Tourraine mentioned in the last chapter. Our Canadian Count was
born at Montreal in 1747 and died in Paris in 1842 at the age of
ninety-five, unless Mr. Le Moine has made a slip of the pen. His uncle
who left the title to him in 1770, was Charles Joseph, Comte et Seigneur
de Montreal, in France, "who with one of his brothers, had
accompanied Charles Edward on his chivalrous attempt to recover the
throne of his ancestors, and was taken prisoner at Culloden." ++**
The Chevalier Johnstone wrote an account of this campaign, and he is
presumably the same Chevalier who joined Charles Edward at Perth and was
the author of the Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745-6. ++*** It
may be mentioned in passing, that Captain John Knox in his Historical
Journal, and Colonel Malcolm Fraser, then a lieutenant, both Scots,
have left full and graphic accounts of the conquest of Canada.
In the Battle of the
Plains, General Moncton had been severely wounded and left in October,
with the fleet, for New York. General Townshend returned to England
about the same time, and General James Murray, son of Lord Elibank, was
left in command. It was thus reserved for a Scot to complete the work of
Wolfe and to occupy the position of first Governor of Canada under
English rule—the earliest in that illustrious roll of viceroys upon
which the latest name inscribed is that of "a brither Scot,"
his Excellency, the Marquis of Lorne.
It was not to be expected
that so able and high-spirited a general as De Levis would give up New
France without another struggle. The British ranks had been sorely
thinned by cold, disease and privation during the trying winter of
1759-60, in spite of the strenuous and intelligent efforts of the
general to relieve them, as well as the Canadians whose ruler he had now
become. Murray had appealed for aid to New York, and had appealed in
vain. His troops had dwindled down from 7,313 in October to 4,800 in
February; and this number was further reduced to 3,400 by April. There
was scarcity both of food and fuel, and the sufferings of the troops
became intense. Murray has been charged with severity and heartlessness;
but, as Dr. Miles remarks, in the work already quoted, he was not an
unfeeling man by any means, although severely tried by the circumstances
in which he found himself and his first duty as an officer, civil and
military, of the Crown, was obviously to see to the health and comfort
of the handful of brave men still remaining to him. "Making
reasonable allowance for the circumstances in which General Murray was
placed, the candid reader will probably not pronounce General Murray’s
policy towards the inhabitants injudicious or cruel, or that it was
executed with a too rigorous strictness."***+ Amidst the want and
sickness that prevailed during the winter, the strengthening of the
fortifications went on and every preparation made and precaution taken,
to enable the little band to withstand the blow De Levis was preparing
for them. The French commander landed at Pointe-aux-Trembles on the 26th
of April 1760, and at once marched to Lorette and thence to Ste. Foye
church, threatening the advance posts of the British. Murray was
compelled to sally forth to Ste. Foye on Sunday, and he posted some of
his forces between it and Sillery. On the 28th he marched out of Quebec
with the rest of his army—a step the judiciousness of which has been
much debated. The General had, in fact, a choice between standing siege
and risking a battle. The attack made on the French advance was too
impetuous and the pursuit carried too far, the consequence was that they
met a warm reception and were driven back. A series of disorderly
movements followed, and an attempt was made by Levis to turn the British
right. "Meanwhile the left was struggling with the enemy, who
succeeded so far, from their superior numbers, in their attempt to turn
this flank, that they obtained possession of two redoubts, but were
driven out from both by the Highlanders, sword in hand. At length,
however, Levis having brought up fresh troops, Murray was compelled to
retire; the French did not attempt to pursue and the British army
withdrew into the city. A large part of the fight centred about Dumont’s
mill, the La Haye Sainte of the day and a singular story—"a
thrilling episode," Mr. Le Moine says—is associated with this old
wind-mill. "Some of the French Grenadiers and some of Fraser’s
Highlanders took, lost and re-took the mill three times, their
respective officers looking on in mute astonishment and admiration;
while a Scotch piper, who had been under arrest for bad conduct ever
since the 13th of September, 1759, was piping away within hearing,—so
says an old chronicle."***++ In this second battle the fighting was
much more obstinate and the loss proportionably greater. The British had
between two hundred and three hundred killed, and nearly eight hundred
wounded, and the French about twice as many. It must be remembered that
Murray had fearful odds against him, the enemy numbering ten thousand
whereas he had at most not more than three thousand. De Levis now laid
siege to Quebec in form; but, after an interval of only eighteen days,
General Murray awoke on the morning of May 17th to find that the French
had raised the siege, and, like the Arabs, folded their tents and
silently stolen away. The English forces, now only some two thousand
five hundred in number, started hurriedly in pursuit; but Levis was
already across the Cap-Rouge, and soon made good his escape to Montreal,
where he proceeded to concert measures with Vaudreuil for a final stand
on behalf of his country. In spite of the Governor’s unblushing
falsehood and braggadocio when addressing the despairing Canadians, no
one knew better than he, that all that was to be hoped for was an
honourable capitulation.
Quebec being now secure,
an opportunity was afforded the British troops of effecting a junction
between the various divisions of the army. Murray, as we have seen, was
on his way from Quebec, with the remnant of Wolfe’s division,
comprising 2,450 men. On the way up two regiments from the Louisbourg
garrison, under the Scots Lord Rollo, reinforced him. The second
division commanded by Colonel Haviland took possession of the Isle-aux-Noix
where Bougainville had entrenched himself the year before and marched
from Lake Champlain, by the Richelieu River, to the St. Lawrence. To
facilitate the passage of armed vessels, Colonel Haldimand, with one
battalion of the Royal Highlanders, the Grenadiers and Light Infantry
were posted at the bottom of the lake. General Amherst, commanding the
principal division, which included the Black Watch, the Montgomery
Highlanders and the other battalion of the Royal Highlanders, took the
unaccountable route by Oswego and was thus compelled to incur all the
risks and dangers of a passage down the St. Lawrence Rapids. His object
probably was to secure the investment of Montreal simultaneously from
both the east and west; still the movement was a hazardous one, and had
the enemy been on the alert, the consequences might have been serious,
if not fatal, to the expedition. On the 7th of September, the three
divisions had arrived and united in the investment of the city. On the
same day, Governor Vaudreuil sent out De Bougainville with a draft of
articles comprising the conditions upon which he was willing to
surrender Montreal and the whole of Canada. Conferences and
correspondence followed, some of the articles being refused by Amherst,
and others modified. De Levis was much mortified at the British refusal
to allow the garrison to march out with the honours of war. He was a
brave soldier, the last distinguished representative in Canada of the
highest type of French chivalry and military honour and feeling deeply
wounded in his most sensitive point, he took the unusual step of
appealing personally to the British General; but Amherst was firm and
the articles of capitulation were signed by both parties on the 8th of
September, 1760. ***+++
The conquest of Canada
was now completed, and the royal standard of England floated on the
breeze from Newfoundland to the far West, and from the Hudson’s Bay to
Florida and Louisiana. The distinguished part taken by three of the
Highland Regiments in this glorious achievement, has been briefly
indicated; and, whilst desirous of acknowledging cheerfully, the gallant
bravery of the other troops, regular and provincial, it is surely not
too much to claim that the lion’s share of the glory was reaped by the
hardy sons of the mountain and heather. They were, in fact, the flower
of the army, the boldest in attack, the fiercest at close quarters, the
last to retreat at command—always the bravest of the brave. Of the
three regiments enumerated, the illustrious 42nd remains with us to day,
and has reaped far more glorious laurels than their first maiden honours,
gathered under a Canadian sky. Only the other day, when the war cloud,
happily dissipated, though yet only as large as a man’s hand, arose
upon the Eastern horizon, the Highlanders were at once placed to the
fore; "ready, aye ready," as they have ever been, to fight the
battles of England in every clime.^* The other two Highland
Regiments disappeared in their corporate form, at the close of the war.
The Montgomeries saw a good deal of miscellaneous service, at intervals,
against the Indians, and, after the Canadian war, were sent on a small
expedition, with four ships, under Lord Rollo, and Commodore Sir James
Douglas, to Dominique, they were also with the 42nd in the attacks on
Martinique and Havannah. On their return they formed with some of Fraser’s
Highlanders, and a miscellaneous force, an expedition to re-take St.
Johns, Newfoundland, which completely succeeded. In 1763 with the 42nd,
they went to the relief of Fort Pitt, their last service before the
peace of that year. As soon as this was concluded, an offer was made of
land grants to those who chose to settle in America, and, as will be
seen hereafter, many of them took up their abode in old Canada and the
Maritime Provinces. The rest returned to Scotland. The Frasers, or old
78th, were disposed of in the same manner. They seem peculiarly
Canadian, from the intimate connection they had with our early
history.^** In 1775, a portion both of the Frasers and Montgomeries
formed a corps, along with the Royal Highland Emigrants, and in the same
year the Frasers were revived, forming two battalions under Colonel
Fraser, whose services to the crown were rewarded by a grant of the
Lovat estates, forfeited in 1746. This regiment was the old 7lst. ^***
The conquest of Canada
was the crowning work of Pitt’s illustrious career, and it seemed as
if the Peace of Paris had secured to Britain the permanent possession of
the major part of North America. Florida, Louisiana, the narrowing
stretch of land, including the south coast as well as the north coast of
the Pacific, with both Californias were in foreign hands; yet for all
present purposes, the whole vast continent was an appanage of the
British Crown. The consolidation of British North America had hardly
been effected, however, when symptoms of disintegration began to
manifest themselves. The taxation of the colonies was the occasion, not
the cause, of the dismemberment of the Empire, twenty years after the
cession of Canada. So long as the fleur de lis was emblazoned in
stone and brass at Quebec, and the white flag of the Bourbons waved over
its citadel, the force of sympathy was sufficiently exigent to bind the
American colonies to the Crown of England. The stress withdrawn, the
centrifugal power was sure, sooner or later, to make itself effectively
and definitively felt.
The Americans were
themselves by no means unanimous, and it is not to the credit of the
champions of liberty in those days, that they sought, by cruelty,
imprisonment, violence and forcible banishment, to silence all opponents
of the revolutionary propaganda.*^ If they were culpable in this
respect, they committed a graver error in attempting to subjugate the
unwilling and unsympathetic to the north of them. The conclusion seems
inevitable, either that the leaders of the Revolution were blinded by
their own enthusiasm, or that they deliberately intended to conquer this
country and were in fact champions of the Monroe doctrine, long before
it was formulated by Monroe.
At all events they did
invade Canada in 1775. Much has been said of the arbitrary government of
the Province at this time, and there is unfortunately a strong element
of truth in the strictures of historians. Still it must be remembered
that early British rule in Canada was, of necessity, strong-handed,
despotic and essentially military. The Quebec Act of 1774 was not
acceptable either to the French or the dominant party. Guy Carleton, the
Governor, with many sterling qualities, was a somewhat stern
disciplinarian as a ruler. At the moment when danger was at his gates,
and when the French were ready to show their devotion to the Crown, he
chose to cast doubts upon their loyalty and, so far as his efforts went,
to drive them into rebellion. Still the malcontents proved to be few and
insignificant, and the emissaries of Congress found a cool reception
awaiting them on all hands, and especially from the Catholic clergy, to
whose powerful influence the failure to seduce any portion of the habitans
was mainly due. Whatever just grounds of complaint either the French
or English may have had, they were lost sight of when the enemy
approached their gates. Congress had tried, the arts of the demagogue,
and now it appealed to the sword. In Nova Scotia, an appeal had been
made in seductive language but without any tangible result. As was to be
expected from the close proximity of the Province to New England and the
social and commercial ties which united both together, there was a
certain amount of disaffection in some counties, but neither the
malcontents nor the Americans reaped any benefit from it. In Canada, the
Americans resolved to try invasion, and the plan they adopted was an
immediate attack upon Montreal and Quebec. This was not so quixotic an
attempt as might, at first sight, appear. Governor Carleton had only
1,800 men at his command, regulars, militia, seamen, marines and
Canadians—"a motley garrison," as Mr. Le Moine remarks.*^^
Among these were the Royal Highland Emigrants already referred to as
embodied in the 84th Regiment. They consisted of soldiers of the
conquest, from the Frasers and Montgomeries who had settled in the
country, and now sprang loyally to arms to repel the invader. They were
commanded by Colonel Allan Maclean and formed the backbone of the
British defending force. The seamen were under the command of Captains
Hamilton and Mackenzie, and the defences committed to the care of James
Thompson, Acting Engineer, formerly of Fraser’s Highlanders, with one
hundred and twenty artificers. Thompson put the fortifications of the
citadel in repair, and all was made ready for the impending assault.
Obviously Scotsmen mainly provided both the strong arm and the directing
head in 1775. Meanwhile the Americans had had it all their own
way. Benedict Arnold, of whom history speaks in somewhat uncomplimentary
terms, and Ethan Allen had secured Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Soon
after a carefully planned attack was made from several quarters,
Schuyler approached from Lake Champlain, and Arnold reached the St
Lawrence by the Kennebec and the Chaudière The former fell ill at
Albany, and was, succeeded by Colonel Richard Montgomery—a brave
officer, once a lieutenant in the 17th Foot, an Irishman of brave,
generous, and exemplary character. He had left the army, owing, it is
said, to some grievance connected with promotion in 1772 and settled, as
well as married, in the Province of New York. Allen, of "Green
Mountain Boy" fame, tired no doubt, of attempting to reduce Chambly
and St John’s, made a rash attack upon Montreal with a handful of men,
was taken prisoner and sent to England in irons. Carleton here made a
terrible slip; having only eight hundred men, he hurried off to relieve
St John’s, Chambly being already in Montgomery’s hands, tumbled into
an ambuscade and hastened the capitulation of the garrison he intended
to succour. No sooner arrived at Montreal again, than he resolved to
abandon it and shut himself up in Quebec. When Montgomery approached,
the garrison were ordered to embark, and, in attempting to do so,
General Prescott and about one hundred and fifty troops—a serious
number under the circumstances—were intercepted by the enemy. The
Governor himself stole past Sorel with muffled oars, and, after some
stirring adventures, succeeded in getting back to the citadel of Quebec.
On the 12th of November, Montreal, being totally defenceless,
surrendered, and the stage was cleared for the final act of the drama.
Benedict Arnold and his auxiliary force had by this time reached the
southern bank of the St. Lawrence, with Quebec unconquered before them.
The romantic story of that memorable march by the Kennebec is full of
interest, and would probably have been known better—at least to
Americans, but for the unfortunate necessity of connecting with it the
name of Benedict Arnold. After thirty-two days of suffering from cold
and hunger, during which his unfortunate men were reduced to the last
extremity, Arnold arrived at Point Levis on the 8th of November: A few
days later he ascended from Wolfe’s Cove and took up a position on the
Ste. Foye Road.
Nothing further could now
be done until Montgomery arrived from Montreal, on the 1st of December,
when the combined forces blockaded Quebec. The siege, if such it may be
called, lasted during the entire month of December, when the gallant
Montgomery, wearied with inaction, came to the desperate resolution of
attempting an assault. On the 31st of December in the midst of a driving
snow-storm, the Americans advanced to the attack. They were disposed in
four columns; the first detailed to make a feigned assault on St. John’s
gate; the second, under Major Brown, was to menace the citadel; the
other two, led by Arnold and Montgomery respectively, were to attempt
the actual work of the assault. The American leaders appear to have
thought that, after seizing the Lower Town, the Upper would lie open to
them, and accordingly, Arnold, with 450 men, was to advance by St. Roch
suburb, and seize the batteries of the Sault-au-Matelot. Montgomery, on
the other side, advanced towards the Lower Town, by the road between
Cape Diamond and the river, intending to force the barrier of the Près-de-Ville,
and enter by Champlain Street. Both divisions were to meet at the lower
end of Mountain Street, and force the Prescott barrier together.
The path chosen by
Montgomery was extremely narrow, and, besides that, obstructed with snow
drifts and blocks of ice. At the narrowest part, known as the Près-de-Ville,
the Americans marched slowly and cautiously; they had passed the outer
barrier without resistance, and approached the inner. All was silent
there, but not deserted. Within was a masked battery of only a few
three-pounders, with a little band of thirty Canadians, eight British
militia, nine seamen to work the guns, under Captain Barnsfare, with
Sergeant Hugh McQuarters, of the Royal Artillery. The enemy halted at a
distance of fifty yards, and an officer advanced to see whether the
guard were on the alert or not. His reply was satisfactory, it would
appear, for immediately the force advanced, with Montgomery in front.
Meanwhile Hugh McQuarters stood, match in hand, ready to take deadly aim
at the head of the column. His gun was one always "kept loaded with
grape and musket balls, and levelled every evening in the direction of
the footpath." It was Montgomery’s fate to be amongst the leading
files of the storming party, and the precision with which McQuarters
acquitted himself of the orders he had received resulted in the death of
the general, two aides-de-camp, and a sergeant. Not another shot was
fired, for the unerring aim of the Scottish artilleryman had, in fact,
decided the fate of the attack.*^^^
Meanwhile Arnold marched
by the St. Charles towards Sault-au-Matelot Street. He was early in the
action, wounded in the knee, and taken to the hospital. His men
continued to advance, until a sortie, directed by Governor Carleton,
captured their rear guard and compelled the rest to surrender. The
British loss was only two killed, Lieutenant Anderson of the Royal Navy,
and Mr. Fraser, head ship-carpenter, with seventeen wounded. Exclusive
of those who fell by the shot of Hugh McQuarters, the Americans lost
about one hundred killed and wounded. The force which surrendered
consisted of 426, of all ranks; of these, 44 were wounded. Arnold
continued the blockade, his troops being posted at a distance of about
three miles from the city. This lasted under Arnold and Wooster who
succeeded him, until the 5th of May—about six months altogether—when,
fearing the arrival of English ships and reinforcements, the Americans
hastily broke up their camp and retired to Montreal. It was at this
juncture that Congress despatched a commission to Montreal, consisting
of Benjamin Franklin and two others, accompanied by a Catholic clergyman
named Carroll, who had been educated in France, and was therefore
expected to have no small influence with the French clergy. They soon
discovered from Arnold that the case was hopeless, and, after remaining
in Montreal about a fortnight, departed to report, not progress, but
retrogression. So ended the Revolutionary chapter in the history of
Canada.
It has been already
stated that a large number of the Highlanders who fought in the French
and Revolutionary wars settled in old Canada and the Maritime Provinces.
Indeed the number was so large, comparatively speaking, and the means of
securing accurate information regarding them is so imperfect, that it
will be hardly possible to enter into detail. It is only by cursory
notices scattered in works, written on the general history or topography
of the Provinces, that any facts regarding these settlers can be
gleaned. In all the Provinces, instructions were sent from the Imperial
Government, to set apart grants of land both for the officers and
soldiers retired from service and also for the Loyalist refugees in the
Revolutionary period.**^ After the Conquest, the Fraser Highlanders as
well as the Montgomeries were sprinkled liberally over the Province of
Canada. Major Nairn and Captain Fraser were made seigniors in the
neighbourhood of Murray Bay. In 1782 numbers of the Royal Highland
Emigrants occupied land in the same locality. These, says Le Moine,
"were the immediate progenitors of genuine Jean Baptistes—such as
the Warrens, McLeans, Harveys, the Blackburns and several other families—who,
of their Scotch ancestry, have retained nothing save the name.**^^ In
many cases not merely the language, but the patronymic itself has been
lost, and hence it becomes impossible to trace the Scottish origin of
the family without some special knowledge not usually committed to print
or even writing.**^^^ The Province of Ontario was first peopled by
loyalists from the revolted colonies; but to the east, in the Provinces
of Quebec, notably, and to some extent in the Provinces of Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick it is not always easy to distinguish the origin of
families. The Frasers, in 1868, undertook the task of binding together
once more the scattered members of their clan and giving it once more
something like corporate being. The information given by Mr. Keltie was
received directly from the Hon. John Fraser de Berry, formerly
Legislative Councilor for the Rougemont Division.^ At the Quebec meeting
it was reported that there were 12,000 persons in British North America
bearing the name of Fraser, all of them in positions above that of the
day labourer. Of these, many are descendants of the Fraser Highlanders;
and others, such as John Fraser, who died in 1840, aged eighty-eight, at
Shelburne, N.S., were U.E. Loyalists. The Hon. Mr. Fraser remarks that
they are all strong, well-built men, hardy, industrious, sober, having
comfortable homes, where quietness reigns and plenty abounds. At the
gathering alluded to it was resolved to form a new clan Fraser, partly
to keep alive traditional sympathies, and partly for benevolent
purposes. The Hon. James Fraser, of Farraline, Legislative Councillor of
Nova Scotia, was elected "Chief" of the clan for British North
America, and one hundred and eleven subordinate chieftains were also
named. The blending of the nationalities amongst the Frasers is
remarkable, some speak English, some French; some of both nationalities
are Catholics, others Protestants. ^^ Of course the members of this clan
and of others belong to no particular immigration epoch, and therefore
may or may not belong to the period now under review. To enumerate the
U. E. Loyalists of Scottish birth who took refuge in Canada or the
Maritime Provinces would be a hopeless task in the space that can be
devoted to them. If the reader will turn over the two bulky volumes of
Sabine’s work, he will have some idea of the large number who came
hither from every part of the revolted colonies, almost all of them
sufferers in body or estate for loyalty’s sake. To give but an example
or two, there are no less than eleven McDonalds, eight of one family,
each with a family of his own, all of whom emigrated to New Brunswick,
besides others who returned home. There are three McKays, one of them
Hugh, of the Queen’s Rangers, who also went to New Brunswick; then
comes the name of the Mackenzies settled at Shelburne, in Nova Scotia.
We have also Archibald McLean, who became a New Brunswick M.P.P. and
Magistrate, and Charles McPherson, one of the founders of St. John, New
Brunswick. Indeed it may be said, in brief, that New Brunswick, in some
localities, and Nova Scotia to no small extent, received its most
vigorous stock of pioneer colonists from the Scots who clung to the
throne, in the period from 1776 to 1783, lost their earthly all, and
desirous of living and dying under the old flag, sought a home in the
pathless wilderness on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. The distribution
of the Scottish population in the Maritime Provinces will be better seen
when the modern progress and present condition of them are examined in
detail. Early settlement so far as British colonizers are concerned, was
of no great consequence. Still, as showing the enterprise of the Scot,
one or two important efforts may be mentioned. At an early date, in New
Brunswick, when that Province was almost an unbroken forest, in 1764,
Mr. William Davidson left the north of Scotland and settled at Miramichi.
He was the pioneer in that important district. The French had either
forsaken or destroyed their houses, and the Indians had again assumed
possession of the soil. The next year Mr. Davidson obtained a grant of
no less than 100,000 acres on the south-west branch of the Miramichi
River. Soon after, a countryman, Mr. Cort, from Aberdeen, joined him.
The two caught together from 1400 to 1800 tierces of salmon yearly and
drove a profitable trade. The Indians were friendly until the breaking
out of the American Revolution, when they broke out, "displayed
their flags, sounded the whoop and yell of war, and bade defiance to the
pale faces of the east. They burnt two houses, killed the cattle, and
robbed Cort’s storehouse of 700 moose skins. These Indians favoured
the rebels, and exemplified a love of liberty, or rather license, in
their own peculiar fashion. They were finally overawed by the crew of a
man-of-war."
Soon after the capture of
Quebec, a Mr. Walker, from Scotland, settled at Alston Point, on the
north side of Bathurst Harbour, and traded in fish, furs, walrus hides,
tusks and oil. So far back as 1766 some Massachusetts families settled
up the St. John, in what is now the county of Sunbury. During the
Revolutionary war this settlement received large accessions from the
ranks of the Loya1ists, a considerable proportion of the new-comers
being Scots. Three thousand persons from Nantucket arrived in the spring
succeeding the peace, many of whom had served in the army, and twelve
hundred followed in the autumn. ^^^ Mr. McGregor quotes from a pamphlet
an account of the sufferings undergone by these hardy pioneers.
"The difficulties," says the writer, "which the first
settlers were exposed to continued for a long time almost
insurmountable. On their arrival, they found a few hovels where St. John
is now built, the adjacent country exhibiting a most desolate aspect,
which was peculiarly discouraging to people who had just left their
homes in the beautiful and cultivated parts of the United States. Up the
River St. John the country appeared better, and a few attractive spots
were found unoccupied by old settlers. At St. Ann’s where Fredericton
is now built, a few scattered. French huts were found; the country all
around being a continued wilderness, uninhabited and, untrodden, except
by the savages and wild animals; and scarcely had these firm friends of
their country (American Loyalists) begun to construct their cabins, when
they were surprised by the rigours of an untried climate; their
habitations being enveloped in snow before they were tenantable.
"On the Bay of Fundy, the frontier town is distinctively Scottish,
both by name and early settlement. On a point of low land at the mouth
of the St. Croix, and in front of a hilly ridge stands the town of St.
Andrews." ^*^
Before it is spread the
spacious Bay of Passamaquoddy, with the islands and the coast of Maine
in the distance, and a grand and picturesque land view to the east. At
various points up the St. Croix, there were early settlements made, and
the Scot has been always fully represented there as well as on the St.
John. To the first immigration on the Miramichi reference has already
been made. There the great lumbering interest first established itself
amidst many difficulties, culminating in the terrible fire of 1825, when
"a hundred and forty miles in extent, and a vast breadth of country
on the north, and from sixty to seventy miles on the south of the
Miramichi River, became a scene of perhaps the most dreadful
conflagration that occurs in the history of the world." ^*^^
The settlements of
Douglastown and Newcastle were swept away in a few moments, many of the
inhabitants perishing in the flames. Saw-mills, vessels and buildings,
public and private were doomed by the fury of a fire "borne upon
the wings of a hurricane" with a rapidity almost inconceivable.
About the Bay des Chaleurs, which separates the Gaspé district of
Quebec from New Brunswick there are many settlers of Scottish origin.
^*^^^ Miscou Island, which is about ten miles round, was once under the
French régime, a great fishing station; but early in this
century, it only afforded a salient proof of the facility with which a
Scot can find a home and earn a livelihood anywhere. "In
1819," says Mr. McGregor,^^*^ when I was ashore on this island,
there was living on it but one family, consisting of a disbanded
Highland soldier, of the name of Cambell, his wife, son-in-law and two
daughters. He settled on this spot, from a truly Highland attachment to
flocks and herds, as it affords excellent pasturage and produces also
plenty of hay for winter fodder. ^^*^^
The number of Scots at an
early period engaged in the timber-trade, was very considerable, as the
names of some of the principal firms owning vessels and saw-mills on the
Restigouche, the Miramichi, and other rivers of New Brunswick, clearly
show. Still the north-country folk were never so numerous an element
there as in the neighbouring Province of Nova Scotia, except in the
distinctively Scots Colonies, as they were termed, to which reference
has been made. Sir Howard Douglas, who was Governor at the time of Mr.
McGregor’s visit, appears to have been an energetic promoter of the
material, educational and religious interests of New Brunswick. He
constructed military roads, established schools, and displayed a deep
interest in the Presbyterian Church and collegiate instruction. Up to
1783, the Courts were held at Sunbury. In that year Fredericton was made
the seat of law, and in 1784 New Brunswick was constituted a separate
Province, with the latter city as its seat of government.
Reference has already
been made to the abortive settlement of Nova Scotia, by Sir William
Alexander. At the present time the localities peculiarly Scottish
clearly mark out the current of immigration in the eighteenth century.
There is a memorial of a singular settlement in the name of McNutt’s
Island at the entrance of Shelburne Harbour. Alexander McNutt was, it
would appear, a religious enthusiast, who attempted a sort of millennial
colony in early days on the western shore. It was called New Jerusa1em,
but proved a failure; the settlers failed to fulfil the Crown terms, and
their lands were at last forfeited, and New Jerusalem fell into the
hands of the governmental Philistines. In 1783, no less than twelve
thousand Loyalists settled there; the site of a town was chosen, and
named Shelburne by Governor Parr, in honour, no doubt, of the statesman
whose title was merged in that of Lansdowne. Alexander’s Scottish
names—the Clyde River and Argyle Bay—remain as monuments of his
unsuccessful enterprise; but long since his day they have served to
attract large numbers of disbanded Scottish soldiers, loyalist and
immigrant. At Pugwash Harbour—a name we may acquit the Celts of
imposing upon the place—there are Highland settlements of importance.
Speaking of the timber district in other lands, Mr. McGregor says,
"It presents a striking contrast to the beautiful lands settled by
the Scotch Highlanders, lying along the shore, between this place and
the next harbour. The latter people, as well as those at Fox Harbour,
were hardy, industrious emigrants from the Hebrides; ignorant, however,
of improved methods of cultivating the soil, yet by adhering to rural
labour, they have not only obtained a better livelihood than the
lumberers, but they have good farms, with extensive clearings, which
secure them against the evils of poverty." ^^*^^^ Another place,
with an abominable name, Remsheg, was patriotically improved into Fort
Wallace. It may be remarked, in passing, that there are colonies of
Germans at Lunenburg and Le Have, of old Acadians on St. Mary’s Bay,
and of Swiss Protestants on the River John. Pictou and the mining
district are peculiarly Scottish. There is a large Highland colony
there, retaining, in primitive purity, the language, the music, the
sports, the habits and the simplicity of the old land. The first
settlement at Pictou was in 1765, by a handful of wanderers from
Maryland. Thirty families of Highlanders, "who joined them
afterwards, underwent almost incredible difficulties, in consequence of
arriving late in the season, having no houses to shelter them, wanting
provisions, the general wilderness state, at that time, of this part of
the province, and its great distance from the nearest settlement."
^+ Tenacious with sterling Scottish tenacity, these hardy pioneers
persevered, and in a few years they were enabled to live in comfort.
From that period Pictou has progressed with measured regularity, to an
extent which would have surprised the enterprising tourist of fifty
years bygone. Mr. McGregor, who was an honest and intelligent observer,
notes what had already been effected around Pictou in these words:
"The port has continued to be a great point d’appui for
emigrant ships leaving the Highlands and Isles of Scotland. Settlements
consequently extended up the rivers, and along the shores to the north
and south-east; and Pictou therefore derives its importance from being
the centre of all the intercourse and trade, as well as the port of
entry for that part of Nova Scotia lying betwen the Gut of Canseau and
the Bay de Vert." ^++ It is quite possible that the author of British
America was carried away by his Highland sympathies, for a singular
want of sympathy is shown in his work with Lowland energy and
enterprise. In 1832, however, the balance may have been on the other
side, and the picture of this Nova Scotian colony of Scots Highlanders
has an air of unmistakeable truth about it. ^+++
An admirable work on the
distinctively Scottish County of Pictou has recently been written by a
resident clergyman, and from it the following facts are mainly
extracted. ^^+ One of the early immigrants deserving special notice was
James Davidson, a native of Edinburgh, who came out with his wife and
first-born in the same vessel with the Rev. Mr. Cock, and his family. He
was the first school-master at Pictou and established the first
Sabbath-school in the county at Lyon’s Brook. He was an eminently
pious man and effected much good amongst the early settlers roughing it
in the wilderness. Robert Patterson, made a magistrate in 1774, and
thenceforth known as Squire Patterson, was a Renfrew man, but had
previously resided in Maryland. He was one of the pioneers in the
settlement already mentioned. Long the chief man in the town he earned
the name of "The father of Pictou." All the first lots were
laid out by him; he surveyed all the early grants and also took an
active part in public affairs. His family was numerous and one of his
sons who was an elder in the Church, died in 1857, aged 96. The Harrises
who figure largely in the early annals were a sample of the Scoto-Irish,
their ancestors having left and lost a fine estate in Ayrshire previous
to the Revolution of 1688, "for their attachment to Presbyterian
worship." They had settled near Raphoe in the County of Donegal.
This family spread out into many branches. John Rogers again was from
Glasgow, and he also has left numerous descendants.
In 1773 arrived the ship Hector
with a load of immigrants chiefly from the Highlands. The vessel had
been previously employed under Dr. Witherspoon, in taking Scottish
emigrants to the New England colonies. John Pagan, a merchant of
Greenock, was the moving spirit in the Pictou settlement. He employed an
agent named John Ross to offer to Scottish settlers, a free passage, a
farm lot and a year’s provisions. Three families accordingly, with
five young men, embarked at Greenock; the rest of the passengers went on
ship-board at Loch Broom in Ross-shire. Altogether about one hundred and
eighty or ninety left "auld Scotia" early in July, 1773. At
the moment of departure a piper was found on board; who had not paid his
passage, having nothing to offer but his music, which he proposed as an
equivalent. At the request of the passengers, in whom the love of home
had already anticipated future longings, pleaded for him, and he
remained. There was but one man on board, a sailor, who had ever crossed
the Atlantic before, and few of the passengers had ever passed even so
far as the Isles. The Hector was an old Dutch boat, sea-worthy,
according to the ante-Plimsoll notions of those days; but a sorry tub
for such a voyage. The passage proved long and stormy; provisions were
scarce and disease broke out; and the only resource at last was a sack
of refuse which Hugh McLeod had gathered against an emergency. On the
15th of September, after a sea-voyage of eleven weeks the redoubtable Hector
landed her passengers at Pictou. The story of early disappointment
and suffering told of these hardy Highlanders is exceedingly touching;
but, into its details, there is no room to enter. The hardships of
bush-life, the severity of the winter, and the scarcity of food, wearied
not only the courage but the patience of the settlers severely. That
they triumphed over difficulties unusually great, even in early colonial
life, is another evidence of the indomitable energy and power of
endurance characteristic of the Scot.
The American Revolution
seriously interfered with the nascent trade of Nova Scotia, and there
were serious differences of opinion between the old and new settlers.
Dr. Patterson (p. 99) maintains, from facts which had come to his
knowledge, that Mr. Murdoch is wrong in claiming, in his History of the
Province, that the settlers from the other American colonies were
uniformly loyal. On the contrary, they often sympathized with the
rebels; whereas the immigrants from Scotland were intensely loyal to the
Crown. The only exceptions in the latter case were some of the old
Covenanters, who, "from rigid adherence to the principles of that
body, would not swear allegiance to the British Crown," hence, in
some fashion, had a fellow-feeling for the revolted colonists.
Another settlement was
conducted by Wellwood Waugh, late of Lockerby, Dumfries-shire. This band
had been attracted to Prince Edward Island in 1774; but their hopes were
blighted by a visitation of locusts, and they removed to Pictou County.
At the peace of 1783 there was an important accession to the population,
the largest body being of the 82nd, or Hamilton Regiment, which had been
on duty under General McLean, chiefly at Halifax; but some had seen
service, both north and south, during the war. This regiment was
disbanded at Halifax after the war, and had a large tract of land set
apart for them in Pictou, well known as the 82nd grant. The list of
Scottish families, Highland and Lowland, which are enumerated in the
history of that time, is almost bewildering in its variety of
nomenclature, and if not in pedigree, at least notable in posterity. The
Saxon Burnside, of Glasgow, and the Grays of the Lowlands, jostle
together with all the Macs—Macdonald, Mackay, Mackenzie, and the
Gregor Macgregors, of the imperishable and persecuted clan celebrated in
"The Macgregor’s Gathering":
"The moon’s on the
lake, and the mist’s on the brae,
And the clan has a hame that is nameless by day
* * * * *
While there’s leaves in
the forest and foam on the river,
Macgregor, despite them, shall flourish forever!" ^^++
One Highland Scot, James
Chisholm, the son of a parish minister in the far awa’ North, had been
at first on Washington’s staff, but when he found himself deserted by
his kinsfolk, he left all and made his way "hame to his folk"
in distant Pictou. And here we must abandon a subject which, under Dr.
Patterson’s guidance, would lead us far afield, to refer to one or two
other points of interest in this county. The efforts to procure a stated
ministry there, and the advent of the stout-hearted Rev. Mr. McGregor,
in 1786, will more properly fall under that portion of this work devoted
specially to the progress of religion. Dr. McGregor, as he afterwards
became, brought with him a gentleman well known subsequently in the
district—William Fraser, the surveyor. His description of the country
seems worth quoting:— "In 1787, there were only four or five
houses from Salmon River to Antigonish.
"To the eastward of
the East River there was not even a blaze on a tree. There was not one
inhabitant on the Cape Breton side of the Gut of Canso, and but one on
the Nova Scotia side. In 1788, there was one house at Ship Harbour. I
may add that from Pictou to Cocaigne there were but four or five
families at River John, a few more at Tatamagouche; some refugees at
Wallace, and but one at Bay Verte. At Miramichi there were but five
families." When Dr. McGregor arrived, to use his own words,
"as for population, Pictou did not contain five hundred souls, if
Merigomish be included, I suppose they would amount to a few
more." Squire Patterson, so called, not merely because he was a
Justice of the Peace, but to distinguish him from John Patterson, the
deacon—who was the owner of the only framed house in the town—the
rest being "of round logs with moss stuffed in between them, and
plastered with clay, while the roof was formed of the bark of trees cut
in pieces of equal length, disposed in regular tiers, overlapping and
kept in position by poles running the whole length of the
building." It is quite possible that unpretentious and rude as
these primitive houses may have been, they proved far more cosy and
comfortable within to the Scots immigrants in a Nova Scotian winter,
than Squire Robert Patterson’s lone, bleak "framed"
building, with all the modern improvements. Whether they were defensible
from an architectural point of view was of less importance, than their
defensive power against cold and heat. With people who were so happily
blind as to put up with benches and blocks for furniture, worked
mill-stones with the hand, and did without roads, aesthetic
considerations generally did not acquire much importance. The account of
Dr. McGregor’s labour in the Highland settlements is, in great part, a
history of those settlements, and forms no less a chronicle than a
biography.^^+++ His autobiography, according to Dr. Patterson, gives the
most graphic picture now to be had of the hardships and privations of
those early Scottish settlers, and of the indomitable courage and
perseverance with which they encountered and overcame them. It may be
noted here that Dr. McGregor was a native of Perthshire, born at what is
now the village of St. Fillans, at the foot of the romantic Loch Erne,
in December 1759. His father had been a disciple of Ebenezer Erskine,
and the son, early devoted to the ministry, studied under William
Moncrieff, Professor of the Anti-burgher branch of the Secession at
Alloa. Believing that he was called on to preach the Gospel to his
Highland countrymen, he studied Gaelic, and became a thorough Celtic
scholar. Early in his career he was induced to emigrate to the new field
of labour in Nova Scotia, where he became not only the pastor, but the
counsellor and friend of the Pictou settlers. Of his first elders at
Pictou, three, Thomas Fraser, Simon Fraser, and Alexander Fraser had
been ordained in Scotland, and Donald McKay, Peter Grant, Robert
Marshall, Kenneth Fraser, John McLean, Hugh Fraser, and John Patterson
were set apart for the work in the second year of his ministry.
In the worthy pastor’s
narrative, he says, "There was not a single house (in Pictou) for
years after I came here. The town was for some years without a single
inhabitant; then there was a shed with one family; then another with it,
and so on, till it became what we see it now." Writing of 1790, he
remarks, "I think it was in this year that the first house in
Pictou was built." The first teacher was Peter Grant, whose father,
Alpin, settled in 1784, and had left him at Halifax to be educated.
Additions were made to the settlement from time to time. Amongst the
arrivals were the two brothers, Alexander and Thomas Copeland, of Castle
Douglas in Dumfries-shire, with their two cousins Samuel and Nathaniel.
They were men of means, and there was a vulgar story that they made
money by purchasing at the sale of an American prize, some kegs of
nails, which, were found to contain dollars in the center. Such tales
have always passed current in primitive communities; but it is curious
that the family traditions tell quite another story, according to which
the Copelands were losers instead of gainers by the revolutionary war.
+^ In the country districts successive immigrations both from the
Highlands and Lowlands, chiefly Dumfries, added to the population.
Amongst the leading men of the former were Martin McDonald, Alexander
McKenzie, Archibald Cameron of the latter William Munsie, Robert
Sturgeon, William Porter and others. Later a number of McKinnons,
Macleans, McQuarries, McMillans, and McIntoshes make their appearance.
The two great dignitaries of the place, however, appeared to have been
the two Pattersons, the Governor who had been a Judge in Maryland, and
the Deacon, who was apparently the grandfather of the author of "Pictou."
Early in the century
immigration received a new impetus. The Frasers opened up a settlement
at Millbrook in Pictou County; thence the Rosses, Macdonalds and Gordons
worked their way to the Middle River; and in 1801, large numbers of
Highlanders, chiefly Catholics, arrived, most of whom finally settled
down in Antigonish and to the east. The Mount Thom settlement appears to
have been chiefly Protestant, with the average Scottish nomenclature—Stewart,
McLean, McLeod, Urquhart, Macdonald, Chisholm, Fraser, Cameron, Thomson,
Grant, Brown, &c., &c. During the early years of the century
large numbers of Highland settlements were formed in this district of
Nova Scotia, and these continued fitfully until the war of 1812, when a
new era opened throughout the British Provinces. The settlers came from
Sutherland notably, a large number from the parish of Lairg, from
Stornoway in Lewis, and the northwest Highlands and Islands of Scotland
generally. With the mention of one notable Scot, it will be necessary to
close these desultory gleanings. Edward Mortimer, "The King of
Pictou," as he was proudly called, came from Keith in Banffshire,
and was originally employed by the Liddells of Halifax in the shipping
trade. Settling at Pictou, he married a daughter of Squire Patterson and
at once entered upon a prosperous business career. Personally he was a
man of commanding presence, tall, strongly-built and portly, as a
visitor described him, "with the appearance of a great man and the
address of a great man." By his energy and intelligence he
controlled the trade of Pictou, and made it the business centre of the
Gulf.
The number of Scottish
settlements on the mainland of Nova Scotia; and the number of Scots
whose names are recorded in Haliburton and Murdoch are too many to
detail here. The District of Sydney, we believe, comprised the Counties
of Antigonish and Guysboro’. The former was sparsely settled by the
disbanded Nova Scotia regiment, and in 1795-6, immigrants from the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland flocked into the district and were
reinforced by a number of disbanded Highland soldiers who settled upon
the district from Merigomish in Pictou, through the County of Antigonish.
Arisaig pier, Judge Haliburton tells us (vol. ii. p. 82), was projected
by the Rev. Alexander Macdonald, and the whole county was and still
remains, Scottish. Fox Harbour, in Cumberland County, was settled by
Highlanders; New Edinburgh in Annapolis, and the township of Grenville
in the same district were of Scottish origin. The latter settlement owed
its origin to the redoubtable Sir William Alexander in the first
instance. +^^ The settlement on the boundary line between Maine and
Acadia was projected by Captain Cowan so early as 1718, when the French
were engaged in fortifying Louisburg ; +^^^ but that portion of the old
Province is, of course, in New Brunswick. It is hardly necessary to
mention individual Scottish names, inasmuch as the records fairly
bristle with them.
Early agriculture in the
Maritime Provinces was rude; but during the vigorous administration of
the Earl of Dalhousie, attention was specially directed to an improved
and intelligent cultivation of the soil. The principal merit of this
movement belongs to Mr. John Young, formerly of Glasgow, who stirred up
the farming community in a series of letters bearing the signature of
"Agricola." It is difficult to realize now the effect of these
anonymous contributions to the press; but it was unquestionably powerful
and immediate. Their authorship remained unknown for a considerable
period, and on one occasion, the Lieutenant-Governor, at a public
banquet, toasted "Agricola," and delivered a warm eulogy upon
his letters, while he was as yet but the shadow of a name. Mr. Young’s
suggestions were plain and practical in farming matters, and his
reproofs, though sometimes severe and pointed, were taken in good part
by the agricultural community of Nova Scotia. The immediate result was
the formation of a Provincial Board of Agriculture, and "the
Scottish" system of husbandry.
After this digression, we
may complete the preliminary survey of early settlement in the Eastern
Provinces. Cape Breton, separated from Nova Scotia by the Gut of Canso,
though now an integral portion of that Province was, as most people
know, much longer than it, a French possession and longer still an
independent Province. It is a rugged, cliff-bound island, in places
dangerous to approach, and the scenery is romantic, irregular and
striking. The great basin of the Bras d’Or, and numerous inlets, score
the island and almost divide it in two. The chief interests in
colonization times were its mines, its furs and its fisheries—all of
which were highly productive. Into the early history of Cape Breton it
is unnecessary to enter, especially as occasion has already offered to
refer to the capture of Louisburg by Kirk and Wolfe. In 1800, the
indefatigable Highlander made his appearance, and continued for years to
add a hardy and intelligent supply of immigrants to its population.
Around Sydney, the chief town under British rule, and the chief seat of
the coal trade, the early population consisted chiefly of Scottish
emigrants, some disbanded soldiers, with a few Irish and American
loyalist families. At Grand Anse Harbour, again, there was early a Scots
colony, chiefly agricultural. On the Straits of Canso, where the
population was densest, towards Port Hood, all the first residents, says
Mr. McGregor, "with the exception of a few families, the
descendants of Loyalists, were Scotch Highlanders, or rather Islanders,
of the poorer sort, who have secured the means of existence, but who
seem indifferent to greater comfort or affluence."++^ On St. Anne’s
Harbour, beautiful by situation, all the lands were granted to Scottish
immigrants early in the century; Boularderie Island, again, between St.
Anne’s and Sydney, forming the two entrances to the Bras d’Or was
originally Highland, with the exception of a few Irish fishermen. The
Scots settled also on the shores of Bedeque Inlet, and upon the straits
of Barra, which kept fresh in patriotic memories the name of one of the
Hebrides. The shores of St. Andrew’s Channel, St. George’s, and
indeed of all the numerous inlets from the Bras d’Or, were originally
peopled by Scottish settlers, for the most part of the Highlands, or
Islands of Western Scotland. Ainslie Lake, the largest fresh-water sheet
in the Island, is bordered by lands of great fertility, and thither the
Scots made their way.++^^
St. Paul’s and Sable
Islands are chiefly known to the outside world by the melancholy records
of marine disaster. Cape Breton has a dangerous coast, and almost every
port in the gulf has its volume of shipwreck history. In attempting to
avoid its rocks many vessels perished, in former years, upon St. Paul’s
Island. ++^^^ Sable Island, since the opening of Trans-Atlantic steam
navigation, has borne a still more sinister reputation. Early in the
century, the Legislature of Nova Scotia made provision for the
establishment of some families there to aid shipwrecked mariners or
passengers, and, in 1830, at the urgent instance of Sir James Kempt, the
Imperial Government undertook to provide for what in these days we
effect by such beneficent associations as the National Life Boat
Association. In the attempts made to provide either security or rescue
for the seaman, the names of such men as Wallace, of Halifax, who has
given his name to a lagoon in the sand island, stand conspicuous. Sable
Island is not so dangerous of itself, but it stands in the way, and
ships exposed to the periodical winds are always in danger from it.
Prince Edward Island is
interesting on many accounts; but it seems necessary here, in a
preliminary statement of a few facts regarding its early settlement, to
be brief. So far as its history is concerned, it may shortly be stated
that, like Louisburg, it was disgracefully surrendered, in 1748, by the
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1758, Colonel Lord Rollo, a Scottish peer,
and one of Wolfe’s most trusted officers, took possession of it, and
in 1763, at the peace, with the rest of the French possessions, it was
finally ceded to Great Britain. Prince Edward Island is pre-eminently an
agricultural province, differing in this respect widely in aspect and
geological configuration from Cape Breton, which it nevertheless
resembles in the number of sea-inlets which traverse it to such an
extent that "no part of the Island is at a greater distance than
eight miles from the ebbing and flowing of the tide." On the
northern side of Prince Edward Island lies Richmond Bay, which early
attracted the Acadian and New England fishermen, the neighbourhood
abounding in cod and herring. In 1771, a number of Scottish settlers,
accompanied Judge Stewart and his family from Cantyre in Argyleshire,
and formed the nucleus of a vigorous Highland colony.
The majority of these
people were Presbyterians; but some of them, as well as the few Acadian
French, worship in the Catholic Church, as do the few Indians on the
Island. At Harrington or Rustico to the eastward, and on the Whately and
Hunter Rivers a large number of industrious farmers settled early in the
century from different parts of Scotland. Hunter River falls into
Rustico Bay, and there, in 1819, Mr. Cormack, of whom further mention
will be made by-and-by, planted a settlement to which he gave the name
of New Glasgow. Another tract of land in Stanhope Cove, or little
Rustico, was in McGregor’s time the property of Sir James Montgomery
and his brothers—of his nationality, however, nothing is said. Five
miles further east is Bedford or Tracadie Bay, the shores of which were
chiefly peopled by Highlanders. On the west side of the bay, and from
that to Stanhope Cove, there was, when the Island surrendered, in 1759,
a dense population. The late Captain Macdonald, of Glenalladale removed
to this place in 1772, with a Highland following. Savage Harbour also
owed its early settlement to the same source. On the Hillsborough River
above Charlottetown again there was an early Scottish settlement in an
exceedingly picturesque locality. The laird of the district, as he may
be called, in Mr. McGregor’s time, was John Stewart, of Mount Stewart,
sometime paymaster of the forces in Newfoundland, and then Speaker of
the Prince Edward Assembly. At St. Andrew’s on the same stream was
"the large Catholic Chapel, the seat of the Catholic bishop,"
who bore the unmistakebly Highland name of the Right Reverend Aeneas M’Eachern,
titular Bishop of Rouen, a venerable prelate, highly esteemed by people
of all creeds.*^+ In Prince Edward Island as elsewhere, in
the early days of colonization, agriculture was in a rude condition; yet
by the end of the first quarter of this century a vast improvement had
taken place. The establishment of agricultural societies effected much,
and more was attributable principally to the force of example, set by a
few of the old settlers, chiefly the Loyalists and Lowland Scots, and by
an acquisition of industrious and frugal settlers from Yorkshire, in
England, and from Dumfries-shire and Perthshire, in Scotland. *^++
Charlottetown, like all the urban colonial centres, boasted a mixed
population of all the three British nationalities in those days; but
through the settlements, though there were representatives from almost
every county in England, and considerable numbers from Erin, the Scots
formed more than half of the population, from the Highlands, Hebrides,
and the southern counties. "The Lowland Scotch," wrote Mr.
McGregor, "make probably the best settlers, at least those who
during late years removed to the island may be considered so; and the
Perthshire Highlanders, as well as those sent to the colony by the late
Earl of Selkirk, may also be classed among the most thriving part of the
population." *^+++
The Island of
Newfoundland has never contained a large number of Scottish settlers—the
English and the Irish having always preponderated. Mr. Cormack, already
mentioned, was an exploring Scot of note, who, in 1826, with a party of
Indians, traversed the Island from Trinity Bay to St. George’s Bay—no
light undertaking. The rugged, broken contour of the surface, the
numerous lakes, which caused the traveller even greater labour than they
caused Livingstone and Stanley in Africa, had to be walked round, with a
Micmac and a pocket-compass as his only guides. His observations were of
much weight in determining the value of the country, geologically, and
otherwise. The notes he took of the fauna and flora of the island at its
broadest part were, also, intelligent and serviceable. In the general
history of the Island, some Scots, by birth or descent, occur, who
deserve passing mention. The redoubtable Kirk was there in 1654, and
formed a settlement; and it was constantly visited, from time to time,
by naval officers of various ranks. Up to a comparatively recent period
Newfoundland was governed by the commander of the fleet cruising in the
neighbouring waters. In 1740, Captain Lord J. Graham was Governor; in
1775, Commodore Duff; in 1782, Vice Admiral Campbell; in 1794, Admiral
Sir John Wallace; but having ascended to the dignity of Admiral, it
seems unnecessary to mount higher. Having thus taken a hasty survey of
early settlement in the Eastern Provinces, it seems well now to direct
attention to the character and effect of the British conquest of Quebec
and the Maritime Provinces. Thereafter, an attempt will be made to
examine, at greater length, the work performed by the Scots in each
Province, the service they rendered to the moral, intellectual and
social progress of those various communities; the share they took in
building up each of the interests which together make up the sum of
Canadian wealth, prosperity and vigour.
* "The Exile’s
Song," by Gilfillan, touchingly expresses the tender attachment of
the Scot to his native land. The first stanza was found in the pocket of
one of the Scottish emigrants – 200 in all – who perished by the
burning of the steamer Montreal, near Quebec, in June, 1857. He and all
his fellow victims were laid in one grave in Mount Hermon Cemetery,
Quebec. See Le Moine’s: Quebec Past and Present, page 293.
** Biographical
Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Vol. i. p. 27.
*** See an admirable
monogram with portrait, published for the Prince Society, Boston,
entitled Sir William Alexander and American Colonization, which
is not only biographical, but contains the charters in full with
specimens of Alexander’s literary style. This handsome volume reflects
great credit upon the historical body which issued it. The reader may be
referred also to Haliburton’s Nova Scotia, p. 86; Murdoch’s Nova
Scotia, Vol. i., p. 65; Brown’s Cape Breton, p. 68; Hannay’s
History of Arcadia, Chap. vi. &c.
+ Sir Thomas Urquhart,
the translator of Rabelais, and a fellow-countryman, thus speaks of
Alexander’s scheme: "It did not satisfy him to have a laurel from
the muses and be esteemed a king amongst poets; but he must also be the
king of some new-found land; and like another Alexander indeed,
searching after new worlds, have the sovereignty of Nova Scotia! He was
born to be a poet and aimed to be a king, therefore, he would have his
title from King James, who was born a king and aimed to be a poet. Had
he stopped there it would have been well; but the flame of his honour
must have some oil wherewith to nourish it; like another Arthur, he must
have his knights, though not being limited to so small a number; for how
many soever who could have looked but for one day like gentlemen, and
given him but one hundred and fifty pounds sterling without any need of
a king for opening the gate to enter though the temple of virtue, which
in former times was the only way to honour, they had a scale (i.e., a
ladder) from him whereby to ascend unto the platform of virtue,"
&c. Urquhart is wrong in at least one respect; but the number of the
knight’s baronets was limited to one hundred and fifty.
++ The reader who desires
to understand the greatness of Champlain’s character, and the
sufferings he and his people endured, are referred to the works of
Garneau, the Abbe Ferland, Parkman, and also Mr. J. M. Le Moine’s,
interesting little work on Quebec, Past
and Present.
+++ The Abbe Ferland,
Vol. i. p. 202, quoted in Mr. LeMoine’s Quebec, p. 21 note. In
Montgomery Martin’s British Colonies, p. 4, he calls Abraham’s
wife Margaret L’Anglois – a suggestive form of the patronymic –
but the learned Abbe is sure to be correct as to both names.
*+ Wolfe was acquainted
with Forbes and appears to have pressed the subject on Pitt’s
attention. See Life of Wolfe by Robt. Wright, London 1864 pp. 198
and 367.
*++ The Black Watch had
no reason to be ashamed of Fontenoy, whatever may have been the case
with other corps. Their Colonel, Sir Robert Munro, of Fowlis, whose
personal valour was daring even to rashness, was worthy of his men. A
French writer, speaking of the battle, says "The British behaved
well, and could be exceeded in ardour by none of our officers, who
animated the troops by their example, when the Highland furies rushed
in upon us with more violence than ever did a sea driven by a
tempest. I cannot say much of the other auxilliaries, some of whom
looked as if they had no great concern in the matter, which way it went.
In short, we gained a victory; but may I never see such another!"
Keltie’s Scottish Highlands, Vol. iii, p. 334. At this time
(1745) there was not a soldier in the 42nd born South of the
Grampians.
*+++ It may not be amiss
to quote Pitt’s words in reference to these Highland Regiments:
"I sought for merit wherever it could be found. It is my boast that
I was the first minister who looked for it, and found it, in the
mountains of the North. I called it forth, and drew into your service a
hardy and intrepid race of men; men who, when left by your jealousy,
became a prey to the artifice of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have
overturned the State, in the war before last. These men, in the last
war, were brought to combat on your side; they served with fidelity, as
they fought with valour, and conquered for you in every quarter of the
world."
+* After the battle the
Indians, according to Hawkins in his Picture of Quebec, were sent
to scalp and tomahawk the wounded. A touching story is told of the
fidelity of a Scots sergeant who found Lieutenant Peyton, desperately
wounded and only saved him from the tomahawk by killing the Indians who
approached him. Sergeant Alian Cameron had no means of carrying the
officer away except on his back. Being a stout fellow this was not a
difficult task. "He slung the Lieutenant’s fusil over his
shoulder along with his own, and took him on his back, telling him to
hold fast round his neck. As he had a very long way to carry him, he was
obliged every now and then to lay him down in order to take breath, and
give the Lieutenant some ease, as his wound was exceedingly painful. In
this way he got him at last to one of the boats, and laying him down
said, ‘Now, sir, I have done as much for you as lay in my power, and I
wish you may recover."
+** It is said that the
first boat was challenged by the sentries on the river-side. Luckily
there was a captain of the Fraser Highlanders in it, who had served in
Holland, and was well acquainted with the French language and military
system! To the challenge Qui vise? he answered La France;
and to the question A quel reguiment? His response was De la
reine, because he, by accident, knew that Bougainville had a
regiment called "The Queen’s" under his command. So other
sentries were deceived, and when one of them more cautious than the rest
asked "Why don’t you speak up (or loud)"? his reply was
"Tai toi, nous serons entendus" – "Hush! We
shall be heard."
+*** Montcalm has been
much blamed by some French writers for what they regard as a serious
strategical error. English military authorities are of a different
opinion; certainly no one can refuse to admire the gallant and
chivalrous spirit of his decision. See Miles: History of Canada under
the French Regime, pp. 406, 407, and notes.
**+ Hawkins: Picture
of Quebec. Whilst referring to the two gallant heroes who had so
courageously fought, each his country’s battles, and who in their
deaths were not divided, it may not be amiss to refer to the monument
which has united for ever their illustrious names. It was in 1827 that
the Earl of Dalhousie proposed this graceful memorial of the union of
the two nationalities in Canada; and it was another Scot, Capt. Young,
of the 79th Highlanders, who designed the plan of the
monument. Le Moise: Quebec, p.264.
**++ Bell’s Garneau,
Vo. ii. p. 46.
**+++ Ibid.
++* At the Battle of
Carillon or Ticonderoga (1758), where the French, with immense odds in
their favour, were victorious, "The British Grenadiers and the
Highlanders," we are told, "persevered in the attack for three
hours, without flinching or breaking rank; the Highlanders above all,
under Lord John Murray, covered themselves with glory. They formed the
head of the troops confronting the Canadians, their light and
picturesque costume, distinguishing them from all other soldiers amid
the flame and smoke. This corps lost the half of its men, and
twenty-five of its officers killed or severely wounded." After the
battle some Highland prisoners were huddled together on the field,
expecting cruel treatment if not from the French from their Indian
allies, when a gigantic French officer walked up, and after sternly
rebuking some of his men in French, suddenly addressed the prisoners in
Gaelic. Surprise soon turned to horror, " Firmly believing that no
Frenchman could ever speak Gaelic, they concluded that his Satanic
Majesty in person was before them – it was a Jacobite serving in the
French army. Le Moine: Maple Leaves, 2nd Series, p.
102.
++** Le Moine: Maple
Leaves, 2nd Series, p. 28.
++*** Keltie: Scottish
Highlands, Vol. i., p. 535; London Quarterly Review, No. ixxi.
P.211.
***+ Miles’ History
&c., p. 436.
***++ Le Moine Quebec,
p. 182.
***+++ The articles, with
Sir Jeffrey Amherst’s notes of assent, refusal or qualifications, as
well as those articles of the Treaty of Paris (Feb. 10th,
1763) which relate to Canada, will be found in full in the Appendix to
Miles’ History of Canada during the French Regime, pp. 502-9;
also in Knox’s Journals, Vol. ii.
^* A correspondent of the
Standard, writing of the Victoria Cross men at Malta, in June
last, stated that there were not above 300 persons wearing the red
ribbon of the Cross, five of whom were then with the Indian troops –
Brigadier General McPherson, Brigadier General Watson, Colonel Blair,
Colonel Prendergast and Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre. "It is a
notable circumstance," he added, "how those ‘Macs’ crop
up. There is an extraordinary number of Victoria Cross men with that
prefix to their name – upwards of 20 – while there is not a solitary
‘O,’ save O’Connor who was wounded at the Alma."
^** During the years
1758-60, the Frasers lost in killed, 123, wounded 446; total 569.
^*** For full information
regarding all the Highland clans and regiments, consult Keltie’s Scottish
Highlands, and Browne’s Highlanders and Highland Clans, upon
which the writer has largely drawn.
*^ See Sabine’s
comprehensive work on The Loyalties of the American Revolution, and
especially the valuable "Preliminary Historical Essay" with
which it opens.
*^^ Maple Leaves, 2nd
Series, p. 133.
*^^^ See Le Moine’s Quebec,
pp. 297-8. Also, his Maple Leaves, 2nd Series, p.
131; and Bell’s Garneau: History of Canada, vol. ii., pp.
138-164. Some dispute has arisen as to the firing of this fatal gun. Mr.
Le Moine says (Quebec p. 209) "It was then, as it is still,
the custom for a steady non-commissioned officer or gunner of the Royal
Artillery to mount with every infantry guard where there are guns. I
have no doubt in my own mind that honest Sergeant Hugh McQuarters, of
the Royal Artillery, ‘feared God only, and kept his powder dry,’ –
that he fired the fatal gun point blank down the road which he and the
gallant guard had steadily watched through the long, dark hours of that
eventful night. Palmam qui meruit, ferat.
**^ See any of the
general histories of Canada, Haliburton’s or Campbell’s Nova
Scotia, Gesner’s New Brunswick, and the Rev. Mr. Tocque’s
Newfoundland; also Sabine’s Loyalists
of the American Revolution.
**^^ Maple Leaves, 1st
Series, p. 71.
**^^^Mr. Le Moine states
that there is a worthy notary public on the Island of Orleans, either of
English or Scottish ancestry, whose ancestor was named "Richard
somebody, but his heir has never been able to clear up the point; and
still a family name he must have by hook or by crook; so the Richard was
made into Dick, and Monsieur’s Notaire Jean Dick is now known
all over the island and executes deeds under that and no other name. I
do not believe he understands or speaks English." (Ibid. p.
38) Our Canadian friend appears to have been caught napping here. Nobody
wanting a surname would change a good Norman name like Richard into
Dick; the latter, however, is a Scottish patronymic and probably was the
notary’s by legitimate inheritance.
^ The Scottish
Highlanders, vol. ii., p. 305.
^^ It may be mentioned
here that the McNab, figures at a St. Andrew’s dinner at
Kingston, a note of which will be found in Sir James Alexander’s L’Acadie
(vol. ii. chap. i.). He is described (in 1843) as "a warm-hearted
man and a true friend." Dressed usually "in a blue coat and
trousers, with a whole acre of McNab tartan for a waistcoat. At great
dinners he wore a full suit of this tartan; on the jacket were large
silver buttons which his ancestor wore in the rising of 1745."
^^^ John McGregor: British
America, vol. ii., p. 223. To this work published in two volumes by
Blackwood, of Edinburgh, in 1832, the writer is indebted for much of
what follows regarding early settlement in the Maritime Provinces.
^*^ Ibid. Vol ii.,
p. 251.
^*^^ Ibid. Vo.
ii., p. 265.
^*^^^ The County of
Restigouche, near the coast, is peculiarly Scottish. The names of Dunlee,
Glenelg, Glenlivat, Campbelltown, and Dalhousie sufficiently mark the
national character of the settlement. In his Notes on North America, Vol.
I, p. 394, Prof. Johnstone says: "These first settlements we come
to are about eight miles north, in a straight line from the banks of the
Restigouche riber, and 1,250 feet above the level of the sea. . .One
thing a traveler through a region like this is surprised at, when he
stumbles on a settled and cultivated tract of land, such as I was now
passing through; he wonders how the people came to find it out. Who
induced thses men and women to leave remote corners of Scotland, and
settle in this remote corner of South-eastern Canada. The whole line of
country is a terra incognita at Quebec and Fredericton. At the
seat of government of both Provinces, when they complain of how little
we know of their geography at home, the spot I speak of was absolutely
unknown, and yet humble Scotchmen and their families had made choice of
it, and already fixed upon it their future homes." In Soirees
Canadiennes (Quebec 1861) there is an account of a visit to the
entire region in both Provinces, under the caption of "Les cotes de
la Gaspesie."
^^*^British America,
Vol. ii., p. 276.
^^*^^ Mr. McGregor tells
a melancholy story of this Scots Family Robinson in a note. "Three
individuals of this family were, I have learned since, drowned; the boat
in which they were attempting to cross over to Caraquette, having
swamped on a reef about two miles from land. One of these was the
unmarried daughter. Her appearance was certainly interesting when I saw
her; and I could not help thinking at the time, that it was a matter of
regret that she should wear out life on an island thirty miles from any
one but her own family. A black servant that I had with me, told me
after we left, that she was anxious to escape from her prison, as she
named it, and would gladly do so then, if she could. Two months after
the unfortunate girl was drowned." – another Hero lost in a
rougher Hellespont, longed for a Leander, not drowned, but out of reach,
and perhaps never seen or known – only longed for. See Montgomery
Martin’s British Columbia, Book iii, chap. I, and Gesner’s New
Brunswick, chap. iii.
^^*^^^ British
America, vol. ii. p. 126.
^+ Ibid. p. 130.
The writer adds, in a note that "The first settlers had often,
during winter, to cross the country, a distance of nearly fifty miles
through the woods, for what little food they could drag back on a
hand-sled, to sustain the lives of their wives and children."
^++ Ibid. p. 131.
^+++ The town, and the
whole district of Pictou, are decidedly Scottish. In the streets, within
the house, in the shops. On board the vessels, and along the roads, we
hear little but Gaelic and broad Scotch. The Highland dress, the
bagpipe, and Scottish music are also more general in this part of the
country, while the red gowns of the students which we see waving here
and there like streamers, bring the colleges of Aberdeen and Glasgow
with their associations into recollection." Ibid. p. 132.
^^+ A History of the
County of Pictou in Nova Scotia, with maps, by the Rev. George
Patterson, D.D., Montreal: Dawson Bros., 1877, p. 471.
^^++ Sir W. Scott’s Lyrical
and Miscellaneous Poems.
^^+++ Patterson: Pictou:
Chap. viii., and a Life of James McGregor, D.D., by the same
author.
+^ Pictou, p. 158.
+^^ An admirable account
of Sir William, with copies of the three charters, a specimen of his
literary powers, and a variety of curious information regarding his
efforts in the cause of colonial settlement will be found in the Prince
Society’s publication entitled, Sir William Alexander and American
Colonization (Boston). This work reflects great credit on the
liberality of the clergyman whose name the Society bears, and the zeal
for historical research which exists in New England.
+^^^ Murdoch, vol. i, p.
349.
++^ Vol. i. p. 397.
++^^ Some interesting
information, in many respects curious, may be found in an old work on
the French Dominions in North and South America, by Thomas Jeffreys,
published in 1769. The most complete work on Cape Breton is that of Mr.
Richard Brown, dated 1869. With regard to Nova Scotia generally, the
writer is indebted to Judge Haliburton’s Statistical Account of
Nova Scotia, Mr. Beamish Murdoch’s History of Nova Scotia or
Acadia, and Mr. Hannay’s History of Acadia. So far as New
Brunswick is concerned, the best authority is the work of Mr. Monro
(Halifax, 1855).
++^^^ A sad account of
some of these disasters is given in British America, Vol. ii. pp.
413-17. That which befell the ship Jessie, in 1823, during a
snow-storm, in which Donald Mackay, the owner, master, passengers and
crew perished on the way from Three Rivers, P.E.I., was a melancholy
one. The vessel sailed in December, and the wreck and some of the bodies
were found in the May following. Mackay, the owner, who was buried at
Charlottestown, was a brave and enterprising Scot, who had served under
the British flag for a long period, and been confined for ten years, as
a prisoner of war, in France.
*^+ McGregor: vol. I p.
306. By the way is the name of Aeneas in Highland families, an assertion
of the old legend of Trojan ancestry?
*^++ Ibid. vol. i.
p. 525.
*^+++ Ibid. p.
343. See also Walter Johnstone: Travels in Prince Edward Island,
&c. Edinburgh, 1824.
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