The Canadian Brothers (Volume I)
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John Richardson >> The Canadian Brothers (Volume I)
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18 This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
Charles Franks and Distributed Proofers.
The Canadian Brothers; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled.
A tale of the late American war.
By Major Richardson,
Knight of the military order of Saint Ferdinand,
author of "Ecarte," "Wacousta," &c. &c.
In Two Volumes.
VOL. I.
INSCRIPTION.
To His Excellency Major General Sir John Harvey, K.C.B.:
K.C.H. Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick who bore a
conspicuous part in the war of 1812, and who contributed
so essentially to the success of the British arms during
the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, and particularly at Stoney
Creek in Upper Canada, on the night of the 5th June 1813,
when, entrusted with the execution of his own daring
plan, he, at the head of sever hundred and twenty men of
the 8th and 49th Regiments, (The former the Author's
Corps,) surprised and completely routed at the point of
the bayonet, a division of the American army, (under
generals Winder and Chandler,) three thousand five hundred
strong, capturing their leaders, with many other inferior
prisoners, and several pieces of cannon; the Canadian
edition of this historical talk is inscribed, with
sentiments of high public and personal esteem, by his
faithful and obedient servant,
The Author.
PREFACE.
Windsor Castle, October 29, 1832.
DEAR SIR,--I have received your letter of the 27th instant,
and beg to reply that there cannot be the least objection
to your sending a copy of your work, with the autograph
addition; and that if you will send it to me, I will
present it to His Majesty.
I do not presume you wish to apply for permission to
dedicate the work to His Majesty, which is not usually
given for work of fiction.
I remain, Dear Sir, your faithful Servant,
(Signed,) H. TAYLOR
Lieut. RICHARDSON, &c. &c. &c.
H. P. 92nd Regt.
BRIGHTON, December 18, 1832.
DEAR Sir,--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 14th instant, and of the copy of your work,
WACOUSTA, for the King, which I have had the honor of
presenting to His Majesty, who received it very graciously.
I remain, Dear Sir, your faithful Servant,
(Signed,) H. TAYLOR
Lieut. RICHARDSON, &c. &c. &c.
H. P. 92nd Regt.
WINDSOR CASTLE, August 7, 1833.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge your letter of the 1st
instant, together with its enclosure, and beg to express
the deep gratification I have felt in the perusal of that
chapter of your new work which treats of the policy of
employing the Indians in any future war we may have with
the United States. Should you be desirous of dedicating
it to His Majesty I can foresee no difficulty.
Permit me to avail myself of this opportunity of assuring
you of the deep interest with which your WACOUSTA has
been read by the whole Court.
I remain, Dear Sir, your faithful Servant,
(Signed,) H. TAYLOR.
Lieut. RICHARDSON, &c. &c. &c.
H. P. 92nd Regt.
WINDSOR CASTLE, August 12, 1833.
DEAR SIR,--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 9th, and to acquaint you that His Majesty acquiesces
in your wish to be permitted to dedicate your new work
to him.
I remain, Dear Sir, your faithful Servant,
(Signed,) H. TAYLOR.
Lieut. RICHARDSON, &c, &c. &c.
H. P. 92nd Regt.
By the above letters, two material points are established.
The first is that, although works of fiction are not
usually dedicated to the Sovereign, an exception was made
in favour of the following tale, which is now for the
first time submitted to the public, and which, from its
historical character, was deemed of sufficient importance
not to be confounded with mere works of fiction. The
exception was grounded on a chapter of the book, which
the seeker after incident alone will dismiss hastily,
but over which the more serious reader may be induced to
pause.
The second, and not least important, point disposed of,
is one which the manner in which the principal American
characters have been disposed of, renders in some degree
imperative.
The Author has no hesitation in stating, that had it not
been for the very strong interest taken in their appearance,
by a portion of the American public in the first instance,
these volumes never would have been submitted to the
press of this country. Hence, to a corresponding feeling
might, under other circumstances, have been ascribed the
favorable light under which the American character has
been portrayed. From the dates of the above letters from
the principal Aid-de-Camp and Private Secretary to His
late Majesty, it will, however, be seen, that the work
was written in England, and therefore before there could
have existed the slightest inducement to any undue
partiality.
That this is the case, the Author has reason to rejoice;
since in eschewing the ungenerous desire of most English
writers on America, to convey a debasing impression of
her people, and seeking, on the contrary, to do justice
to their character, as far as the limited field afforded
by a work, pre-eminently of fiction, will admit, no
interested motive can be ascribed to him. Should these
pages prove a means of dissipating the slightest portion
of that irritation which has--and naturally--been
engendered in every American heart, by the perverted and
prejudiced statements of disappointed tourists, whose
acerbity of stricture, not even a recollection of much
hospitality could repress; and of renewing that healthy
tone of feeling which it has been endeavoured to show
had existed during the earlier years of the present
century, the Author will indeed feel that he has not
written in vain.
One observation in regard to the tale itself. There is
a necessary anachronism in the book, of too palpable a
nature not to be detected at a glance by the reader. It
will. however, be perceived, that such anachronism does
not in any way interfere with historical fact, while it
has at the same time facilitated the introduction of
events, which were necessary to the action of the story,
and which have been brought on the scene before that
which constitutes the anachronism, as indispensable
precursors to it. We will not here mar the reader's
interest in the story, by anticipating, but allow him to
discover and judge of the propriety of the transposition
himself.
Tecumseh, moreover, is introduced somewhat earlier than
the strict record of facts will justify; but as his
presence does not interfere with the general accuracy of
the detail, we trust the matter of fact reader, who
cannot, at least, be both to make early acquaintance with
this interesting Chieftain, will not refuse us the exercise
of our privilege as a novelist, in disposing of characters,
in the manner most pleasing to the eye.
We cannot conclude without apology for the imperfect
Scotch, which we have (to use a homely phrase,) put into
the mouth of one of our characters, our apology for which
is that we were unaware of the error, until the work had
been so far printed as not to admit of our remedying it.
We are consoled, however, by the reflection that we have
given the person in question so much of the national
character that he can well afford to lose something in
a minor particular.
THE AUTHOR.
THE CANADIAN BROTHERS;
OR,
THE PROPHECY FULFILLED.
CHAPTER I.
At the northern extremity of the small town which bears
its name, situated at the head of Lake Erie, stands, or
rather stood--for the fortifications then existing were
subsequently destroyed--the small fortress of Amherstburg.
It was the summer of 1812. Intelligence had been some
days received at that post, of the declaration of war by
the United States, the great aim and object of which was
the conquest, and incorporation with her own extensive
territories, of provinces on which she had long cast an
eye of political jealousy, and now assailed at a moment
when England (fighting the battles of the, even to this
moment, recreant and unredeemed Peninsula,) could ill
spare a solitary regiment to the rescue of her threatened,
and but indifferently defended transatlantic possessions.
Few places in America, or in the world, could, at the
period embraced by our narrative, have offered more
delightful associations than that which we have selected
for an opening scene. Amherstburg was at that time one
of the loveliest spots that ever issued from the will of
a beneficent and gorgeous nature, and were the
world-disgusted wanderer to have selected a home in which
to lose all memory of artificial and conventional forms,
his choice would assuredly have fallen here. And
insensible, indeed, to the beautiful realities of the
sweet wild solitude that reigned around, must that man
have been, who could have gazed unmoved, from the lofty
banks of the Erie, on the placid lake beneath his feet,
mirroring the bright starred heavens on its unbroken
surface, or throwing into full and soft relief the snow
white sail, and dark hull of some stately war-ship,
becalmed in the offing, and only waiting the rising of
the capricious breeze, to waft her onward on her THEN
peaceful mission of dispatch. Lost indeed to all perception
of the natural must he have been, who could have listened,
without a feeling of voluptuous melancholy, to the
plaintive notes of the whip-poor-will, breaking on the
silence of night, and harmonising with the general
stillness of the scene. How often have we ourselves, in
joyous boyhood, lingered amid these beautiful haunts,
drinking in the fascinating song of this strange night-bird,
and revelling in a feeling we were too young to analyze,
yet cherished deeply--yea, frequently, even to this hour,
do we in our dreams revisit scenes no parallel to which
has met our view, even in the course of a life passed in
many climes; and on awaking, our first emotion is regret
that the illusion is no more.
Such was Amherstburg, and its immediate vicinity, during
the early years of the present century, and up to the
period at which our story commences. Not, be it understood,
that even THEN the scenery itself had lost one particle
of its loveliness, or failed in aught to awaken and fix
the same tender interest. The same placidity of earth,
and sky, and lake remained, but the whip-poor-will, driven
from his customary abode by the noisy hum of warlike
preparation, was no longer heard, and the minds of the
inhabitants, hitherto disposed, by the quiet pursuits of
their uneventful lives, to feel pleasure in its song,
had eye nor ear for aught beyond what tended to the
preservation of their threatened homes.
Let us, however, introduce the reader more immediately
to the scene. Close in his rear, as he stands on the
elevated bank of the magnificent river of Detroit, and
about a mile from its point of junction with Lake Erie,
is the fort of Amherstburg, its defences consisting
chiefly of stockade works, flanked, at its several angles,
by strong bastions, and covered by a demi lune of five
guns, so placed as to command every approach by water.
Distant about three hundred yards on his right is a large,
oblong square building, resembling in appearance the red
low roofed blockhouses peering above the outward defences
of the fort. Surrounding this, and extending to the skirt
of the thinned forest, the original boundary of which is
marked by an infinitude of dingy half blackened stumps,
are to be seen numerous huts or wigwams of the Indians,
from the fires before which arises a smoke that contributes,
with the slight haze of the atmosphere, to envelope the
tops of the tall trees in a veil of blue vapour, rendering
them almost invisible. Between these wigwams and the
extreme verge of the thickly wooded banks, which sweeping
in bold curvature for an extent of many miles, brings
into view the eastern extremity of Turkey Island, situated
midway between Amherstburg and Detroit, are to be seen,
containing the accumulated Indian dead of many years,
tumuli, rudely executed it is true, but picturesquely
decorated with such adornments as it is the custom of
these simple mannered people to bestow on the last
sanctuaries of their departed friends. Some three or four
miles, and across the water, (for here it is that the
river acquires her fullest majesty of expansion,) is to
be seen the American Island of Gros Isle, which, at the
period of which we write, bore few traces of cultivation
--scarcely a habitation being visible throughout its
extent--various necks of land, however, shoot out abruptly,
and independently of the channel running between it and
the American main shore, form small bays or harbours in
which boats may always find shelter and concealment.
Thus far the view to the right of the spectator, whom we
assume to be facing the river. Immediately opposite to
the covering demi lune, and in front of the fort, appears,
at a distance of less than half a mile, a blockhouse and
battery, crowning the western extremity of the Island of
Bois Blanc, which, one mile in length and lashed at its
opposite extremity by the waters of Lake Erie, at this
precise point, receives into her capacious bosom the vast
tribute of the noble river connecting her with the higher
lakes. Between this island and the Canadian shore lies
the only navigable channel for ships of heavy tonnage,
for although the waters of the Detroit are of vast depth
every where above the island, they are near their point
of junction with the lake, and, in what is called the
American channel, so interrupted by shallows and sandbars,
that no craft larger than those of a description termed
"Durham boats" can effect the passage--on the other hand
the channel dividing the island from the Canadian shore
is at once deep and rapid, and capable of receiving
vessels of the largest size. The importance of such a
passage is obvious; but although a state of war necessarily
prevented aid from armed vessels to such forts of the
Americans as lay to the westward of the lake, it by no
means effectually cut off their supplies through the
medium of the Durham boats already alluded to. In order
to intercept those, a most vigilant watch was kept by
the light gun boats despatched into the lesser channel
for that purpose.
A blockhouse and battery crowned also the eastern extremity
of the island, and both, provided with a flag staff for
the purpose of communication by signal with the fort,
were far from being wanting in picturesque effect. A
subaltern's command of infantry, and a bombardier's of
artillery, were the only troops stationed there, and
these were there rather to look out for, and report the
approach of whatever American boats might be seen stealing
along their own channel, than with any view to the serious
defence of a post already sufficiently commanded by the
adjacent fortress. In every other direction the island
was thickly wooded--not a house--not a hut arose to
diversify the wild beauty of the scene. Frequently, it
is true, along the margin of its sands might be seen a
succession of Indian wigwams, and the dusky and sinewy
forms of men gliding round their fires, as they danced
to the monotonous sound of the war dance; but these
migratory people, seldom continuing long in the same
spot, the island was again and again left to its solitude.
Strongly contrasted with this, would the spectator, whom
we still suppose standing on the bank where we first
placed him, find the view on his left. There would he
behold a neat small town, composed entirely of wooden
houses variously and not inelegantly painted; and receding
gradually from the river's edge to the slowly disappearing
forest, on which its latest rude edifice reposed. Between
the town and the fort, was to be seen a dockyard of no
despicable dimensions, in which the hum of human voices
mingled with the sound of active labour--there too might
be seen, in the deep harbour of the narrow channel that
separated the town from the island we have just described,
some half-dozen gallant vessels bearing the colours of
England, breasting with their dark prows the rapid current
that strained their creaking cables in every strand, and
seemingly impatient of the curb that checked them from
gliding impetuously into the broad lake, which some few
hundred yards below, appeared to court them to her bosom.
But although in these might be heard the bustle of warlike
preparation, the chief attention would be observed to be
directed towards a large half finished vessel, on which
numerous workmen of all descriptions were busily employed,
evidently with a view of preparing for immediate service.
Beyond the town again might be obtained a view of the
high and cultivated banks, sweeping in gentle curve until
they at length terminated in a low and sandy spot, called
from the name of its proprietor, Elliott's Point. This
stretched itself toward the eastern extremity of the
island, so as to leave the outlet to the lake barely wide
enough for a single vessel to pass at a time, and that
not without skilful pilotage and much caution.
Assuming our reader to be now as fully familiar with the
scene as ourselves, let him next, in imagination, people
it, as on the occasion we have chosen for his introduction.
It was a warm, sunny, day in the early part of July. The
town itself was as quiet as if the glaive of war reposed
in its sheath, and the inhabitants pursued their wonted
avocations with the air of men who had nothing in common
with the active interest which evidently dominated the
more military portions of the scene. It was clear that
among these latter some cause for excitement existed,
fat, independently of the unceasing bustle within the
dock yard--a bustle which however had but one undivided
object-the completion and equipment of the large vessel
then on the stacks--the immediate neighbourhood of the
fort presented evidence of some more than ordinary
interest. The encampment of the Indians, on the verge
of the forest, had given forth the great body of their
warriors, and these clad in their gayest apparel, covered
with feathers and leggings of bright colours, decorated
with small tinkling bells that came not inharmoniously
on the ear, as they kept tone to the measured walk of
their proud wearers, were principally assembled around
and in front of the large building we have described as
being without, yet adjacent to, the fort. These warriors
might have been about a thousand in number, and amused
themselves variously--(the younger at least)--with
leaping--wrestling--ball playing-and the foot race--in
all which exercises they are unrivalled. The elders bore
no part in these amusements, but stood, or sat cross
legged, on the edge of the bank, smoking their pipes,
and expressing their approbation of the prowess or
dexterity of the victors in the games, by guttural, yet
rapidly uttered exclamations. Mingled with these were
some six or seven individuals, whose glittering costume
of scarlet announced them for officers of the garrison,
and elsewhere dispersed, some along the banks and crowding
the battery in front of the fort, or immediately around
the building, yet quite apart from their officers, were
a numerous body of the inferior soldiery.
But although these distinct parties were assembled, to
all appearance, with a view, the one to perform in, the
other to witness, the active sports we have enumerated,
a close observer of the movements of all would hare
perceived there was something more important in
contemplation, to the enactment of which these exercises
were but a prelude. Both officers, and men, and even the
participators in the sports, turned their gaze frequently
up the Detroit, as if they expected some important
approach. The broad reach of the wide river, affording
an undisturbed view, as we have stated, for a distance
of some nine or ten miles, where commenced the near
extremity of Turkey Island, presented nothing, however,
as yet, to their gate, and repeatedly were the telescopes
of the officers raised only to fall in disappointment
from the eye. At length a number of small dark specks
were seen studding the tranquil bosom of the river, as
they emerged rapidly, one after the other, from the cover
of the island. The communication was made, by him who
first discovered them, to his companions. The elder
Indians who sat near the spot on which the officers stood,
were made acquainted with what even their own sharp sight
could not distinguish unaided by the glass. One sprang
to his feet, raised the telescope to his eye, and with
an exclamation of wonder at the strange properties of
the instrument, confirmed to his followers the truth of
the statement. The elders, principally chiefs, spoke in
various tongues to their respective warriors. The sports
were abandoned, and all crowded to the bank with anxiety
and interest depicted in their attitudes and demeanor.
Meanwhile, the dark specks upon the water increased
momentarily in size. Presently they could be distinguished
for canoes, which, rapidly impelled, and aided in their
course by the swift current, were not long in developing
themselves to the naked eye. These canoes, about fifty
in number, were of bark, and of so light a description,
that a man of ordinary strength might, without undergoing
serious fatigue, carry one for miles. The warriors who
now propelled them, were naked in all save their leggings
and waist cloths, their bodies and faces begrimed with
paint: and as they drew neater, fifteen was observed to
be the complement of each. They sat by twos on the narrow
thwarts; and, with their faces to the prow, dipped their
paddles simultaneously into the stream, with a regularity
of movement not to be surpassed by the most experienced
boat's crew of Europe. In the stern of each sat a chief
guiding his bark, with the same unpretending but skilful
and efficient paddle, and behind him, drooping in the
breezeless air, and trailing in the silvery tide, was to
be seen a long pendant, bearing the red cross of England.
It was a novel and beautiful sight to behold that imposing
fleet of canoes, apparently so frail in texture that the
dropping of a pebble between the skeleton ribs might be
deemed sufficient to perforate and sink them, yet withal
so ingeniously contrived as to bear safely not only the
warriors who formed their crews, hut also their arms of
all descriptions, and such light equipment of raiment
and necessaries as were indispensable to men who had to
voyage long and far in pursuit of the goal they were now
rapidly attaining. The Indians already encamped near the
fort, were warriors of nations long rendered familiar by
personal intercourse, not only with the inhabitants of
the district, but with the troops themselves; and these,
from frequent association with the whites, had lost much
of that fierceness which is so characteristic of the
North American Indian in his ruder state. Among these,
with the more intelligent Hurons, were the remnants of
those very tribes of Shawanees and Delawares whom we have
recorded to have borne, half a century ago, so prominent
a share in the confederacy against England, but who,
after the termination of that disastrous war, had so far
abandoned their wild hostility, as to have settled in
various points of contiguity to the forts to which they,
periodically, repaired to receive those presents which
a judicious policy so profusely bestowed.
The reinforcement just arriving was composed principally
of warriors who had never yet pressed a soil wherein
civilization had extended her influence--men who had
never hitherto beheld the face of a white, unless it were
that of the Canadian trader, who, at stated periods,
penetrated fearlessly into their wilds for purposes of
traffic, and who to the bronzed cheek that exposure had
rendered nearly as swarthy as their own, united not only
the language but so wholly the dress--or rather the
undress of those he visited, that he might easily have
been confounded with one of their own dark blooded race.
So remote, indeed, were the regions in which some of
these warriors had been sought, that they were strangers
to the existence of more than one of their tribes, and
upon these they gazed with a surprise only inferior to
what they manifested, when, for the first time, they
marked the accoutrements of the British soldier, and
turned with secret, but unacknowledged awe and admiration
upon the frowning fort and stately shipping, bristling
with cannon, and vomiting forth sheets of flame as they
approached the shore. In these might have been studied
the natural dignity of man. Firm of step--proud of
mien--haughty yet penetrating of look, each leader offered
in his own person a model to the sculptor, which he might
vainly seek elsewhere. Free and unfettered in every limb,
they moved in the majesty of nature, and with an air of
dark reserve, passed, on landing, through the admiring
crowd.
There was one of the number, however, and his canoe was
decorated with a richer and a larger flag, whose costume
was that of the more civilized Indians, and who in
nobleness of deportment, even surpassed those we have
last named. This was Tecumseh. He was not of the race
of either of the parties who now accompanied him, but of
one of the nations, many of whose warriors were assembled
on the bank awaiting his arrival. As the head chief of
the Indians, his authority was acknowledged by all, even
to the remotest of these wild but interesting people,
and the result of the exercise of his all-powerful
influence had been the gathering together of those
warriors, whom he had personally hastened to collect from
the extreme west, passing in his course, and with impunity,
the several American posts that lay in their way. In
order more fully to comprehend the motives and character
of this remarkable man, it may not be impertinent to
recur summarily to events that took place prior to the
declaration of war by the United States against England.
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