Canadian Pen and Ink Sketches

Preface

. THE LA SALLE HOMESTEAD, LACHINE RAPIDS, CANADA, October, 1890. At the request of many friends, I have con sented to have my " Canadian Pen and Ink Sketches " collected and published in book form. Every man owes a duty to his country, and to his fellow-citizens, to state publicly what he knows respecting the early history of his country; thus placing before some future historian or sketcher matter to build upon. Therefore, I place these, my Canadian sketches, before the public. JOHN FRASER. 64 Drummond Street, Montreal. CONTENTS. Chapter I. PAGE The Massacre of Lachine. two hundred years ago, 4th of August, 1689 3 Chapter II. The Canadian Home of Eobert de la Salle 25 Chapter III. The March of the Six Hundred McDonnell Men, during the war of 1812 39 Chapter IV. The Great Scare in Montreal, 13th of December, 1837 53 Chapter V. John Giant's Inn, the old Scotch House in Montreal... 65 Chapter VI.

Fifty Years Ago — Opening of the Second Eebellion in Lower Canada, Sunday Morning, 4th of November, 1838 13 Chapter VII. Eeminiscences of the Canadian Eebellion,' 1838 8T Chapter VIII. Eeminiscences of the Canadian Eebellion, 1838 93 Chapter IX. Eeminiscences of the Canadian Eebellion, 1838 CONTENTS. Chapter X. PAGB. A Visit to the Canadian Glengarry Forty Tears Ago.. 113 Chapter XI. A Glengarry Double Sleigh Fifty Years Ago 123 Chapter XII. Canadian Arbor Day, 1889 137 Chapter XIII. A Fiftieth Anniversary Visit to the Home of My Youth 149 Chapter XIV. A Visit to the Falls of Niagara Over Forty Years Ago 157 Chapter XV. The Battlefield of Lundy's Lane, fought 25th July, 1814 169 Chapter XVI. Our Antiquities, a Visit to La Salle's Home 185 Chapter XVII. The Blue Bonnets — near Lachine, on the Grand Trunk Eailway 195 Chapter XVIII.

An Historical Canadian Burying Ground and its Neglected Graves 203 Chapter XIX. A Visit to the Battlefield of Stoney Creek, fought 6th June, 1813 211 Chapter XX. The "Old Bunk" of a Canadian Farm House CONTENTS. Chapter XXI. PAGE. First Summer Morning Walk Around Montreal 235 Chapter XXII. Second Summer Morning "Walk Around Montreal 249 Chapter XXIII. Third Summer Morning Walk Around Montreal 261 ChapterIXXIV. Fourth^Summer Morning Walk Around Montreal 273 Chapter XXV. Fifth Summer Morning Walk Around Montreal 285 Chapter XXVI. Sixth Summer Morning Walk Around Montreal 299 Chapter ;XXVII. The Hospitality of a Canadian Farm House of the Olden Time 315 Chapter XXVIII. The "Canadian Glengarry," a pen and ink sketch 325 Chapter XXIX. A Canadian Log House of the Olden Time 335 Chapter XXX. La Salle's Homestead at Lachine, where was it ? 347 Chapter XXXI. The "Battle of Queenston Heights," fought 13th October, 1812 THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE.

Chapter I. The Massacre Of Lachine

A Summer morning walk along the Lower Lachine Road, from the Wellington Street bridge up to the old Windmill at Lachine, is the most charming one to be had in all Canada, ex cepting one on the Canadian bank of the Niagara River, from old Fort George to the ruins of Fort- Erie, opposite Buffalo. Every spot here is storied ground. The early explorers and Chris tian missionaries of Old France found their way westwards along this road. This was the first road in Canada travelled by European foot west of Montreal. Just as the sun is rising we cross the Welling ton bridge of the Lachine canal ; on the left of us, near the Victoria bridge, is the spot where thousands of Ireland's almost forgotten dead, victims of the dread cholera of 1832 and the ship fever of 1847, lie buried ; without shroud and without coffin — in their hurriedly -made pits.

We pass on, leaving the dead of 1832 and 1S17 to their peaceful slumbers ; the clanking engines and the freighted cars of living men roll over them unceasingly from early morning until midnight — from week to week and from year to year ; but those silent sleepers in the cholera pits heed them not ; they are at rest and forever from their labours until the great trumpet's blast shall awake them to new life. On the left hand, between the road and the St. Lawrence, stands the old home of the Nuns, with its roadway lined with Lombardy poplars, the fashionable or popular tree of Lower Canada a century ago. On the right hand — half a century ago — far out in the then open fields, stood the old house on the Priests' farm, near the present St. Gabriel locks on the Lachine canal. It has totally disappeared of late years ; the town of St. Gabriel now covers the ground.

As we pass onwards we reach the River St. Pierre, a famous stream of bygone days, celebrated for its fishing and duck shootin°; half a century ago. This stream, in its curves and windings — meandering through meadow, woodland and marsh, had its source near the head of the Island of Montreal ; passing down in rear of the village of Lachine, crossing the Upper Lachine road near by the present Blue Bonnets ; and must have been used by the Iroquois in their approaches to Montreal in 1689, from their camping ground near the present Dominion station of the Lachine railway. The old bridge is all that remains to mark where a river had been ; no trace of the old river bed can now be seen. Near by, on the bank of the St. Lawrence, stands that old building known at the beginning of this century as " Chapman's Brewery."

Close by are the ruins of the " Hadley Homestead " ; Mr. Hadley was famed for his stock of fine cattle, known all over Canada. On this farm was fought the fatal duel on the 22nd of May, 1838, between Major Ward of the Royals and Captain Sweeney of the Volunteers ; Ward was instantly killed. Adjoining the Hadley farm is the old Pavilion, being all that remains to mark the spot of Montreal's celebrated race-course of fifty years ago. Opposite the Pavilion, midway in the St. Law rence, floating in queenly beauty, is the " Nuns' " or St. Paul's Island, beautiful for situation, well wooded to the water's edge. Farther on — above the Nuns' Island — is Isle Heron, right in the centre of the St. Lawrence ; noted at the present day for its immense water power - going to waste, which is intended shortly te be utilized for electric light and other purposes.

Facing Isle Heron is " Verdun,'' the home of our old friend Mr. John Crawford, the veteran fox hunter of Montreal, who, when mounted on his spirited charger, although four score, sits his horse like a boy of eighteen. SUBERCASE'S STOCKADE, 16S9. The next spot of interest are the ruins in and around " Knox's Mills," with water-power, which, if utilized, might supply power for one half the mills and factories in Canada. Near by the old mill may still be seen the ruins of " Subercase's Stockade," in which he was stationed with two hundred men on the night of the 4th of August, 1689. The far-famed Lachine Rapids are facing us, rolling, tossing, and tumbling in the self-same course as for untold centuries ! We may be permitted to say : " Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now ! " Four acres above Knox's mill, in front of the Somerville House, is the spot where the shad fishing is carried on during the passing up of the shad about the first week of June in each year.

Farther up, at the six-mile post, is the eastern boundary of what was known as the " LaSalle Common,'' of 200 acres, set apart by LaSalle in 1666, when Seigneur of Lower Lachine. This common was parcelled out amongst the neighboring farmers in 1835, and is now covered with orchards and comfortable cottages. THE KING'S POSTS OF 1812. Next to the old common, just at the present water works bridge, was the eastern boundary of the English " King's Posts," the most celebrated post in Canada during the war of 1812. Every British soldier, every British regiment sailed westwards in bateaux from this place and landed here on their return from Upper Canada at the end of the war ; this was before the building of the Lachine canal. The writer saw the last soldier, bag and baggage, leave this post over sixty years ago.

LA SALLE'S CANADIAN HOME OF 1666. Adjoining the "King's Posts" still stands the Canadian home of Robert de La Salle, now crum bling down — soon to mingle with the dust of ages, with no Canadian patriotic enough to do honour to the memory of La Salle — the brightest picture either in Canadian or American history, by saving and restoring what remains of his old home ; although the writer's family have offered to the public 3,500 square feet of land, as a gift, say, seventy feet fronting on the Losver Lachine road, by fifty feet in depth, to enclose the old home. La Salle needs no monument along our mountain slope! — no storied urn nor animated bust ! — to perpetuate or transmit his name to future generations. This whole northern continent, boundless and vast, bears unmistakable traces of his footsteps.

But his home — his old Canadian home — every rubble stone thereof should be held sacred by Canadians and Ameri cans to the latest generation. THE AVRITER'S BIRTHPLACE. With the profoundest reverence the writer uncovers his head as he passes this old spot — his birthplace. He was born within the old walls that at one time surrounded LaSalle's home ; and with a silent prayer: — "That justice and judg ment may yet meet in our family estate." This estate of about 1,000 acres of land, on this Lower Lachine road, has been wrenched from our family by a dastardly act of " Man's inhumanity to man." Contrary to the laws of God ! Contrary to the law of England ; and in direct violation of the civil laws of Lower Canada, as declared by the judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench for Lower Canada : " That this whole estate belongs to the family under the law of this province."

But their lordships of the Privy Council were led to think — " That our French law, forbidding bequests to non-existing corporations, or for their foundation or creation, without the permission of the Crown, was abrogated by the Code." The question now rests with the legislators of Quebec to pronounce upon and to declare what is the law of Lower Canada on this point. The old " Penner " farm, now Mr. Doran's, is next to LaSalle's home. This farm, three quarters of a century ago, was known all over Canada for its hop-fields and for its fine stock of imported English cattle, particularly sheep ; and " Penner's cider " was known beyond the boundaries of Canada. The writer remembers Mr. Penner having seventy acres under hops, and of his having made four hundred puncheons of cider in one year — in 1831.

Mr. Penner served in the Montreal cavalry during the war of 1812, and was captain of the Lachine Troop during the rebellion of 1837. Next to the " Penner " is the Newman farm, famed for its orchard of about fifty acres, valued from $5,000 to $8,000 per annum, according to the year. We must hurry on, the Windmill is within a mile distant. THE OLD WINDMILL. A writer has said : — " If thou would'st view fair Mel rose aright; go visit it by pale moon light." But, reader, if you would view the old windmill at Lachine aright, you should take a carriage drive or a morning walk by the Lower Lachine Road, as the writer has done, and arrive at this historical spot about half an hour before sunset. What a magnificent view there presents itself to the eye ! Lake St. Louis, stretching westwards twenty miles, is spread right before you as a mirror, without a ripple on its broad surface of over two hundred square miles — a thing of beauty — all ablaze, with the rays of the setting sun dancing in gorgeous colours over its silvery waters.

There are few sights in Canada to be compared with the view to be had there. Suppose you take your seat with us on the hill side, close under the wings of the old mill ; you have, right opposite to you — on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, the old Indian town of Caughnawaga, a relic of departed days ; this spot, on which the present mill stands, is the spot on which the old mill of 1689 stood. This was known as the Windmill point from earliest days; and this is the very identical spot from which the early French explorers had their first full view of Lake St. Louis, impressing upon them the belief that the large body of water spread out before them was the opening of a water-way through Canada to China which called forth the exclama tion — " La Chine ! " hence the name " Lachine " given to this place.

Two hundred years ago, in 1689, the windmill and its surroundings must have been the centre of the ancient village. Three acres from the mill stood Fort Remy, and close bv the Fort stood the first little Catholic chapel of Lachine, built in 1676, and the first church — the old parish church of Lachine — was afterwards built in 1701, inside the walls of Fort Remy. The present novitiate of the " Fathers Oblats " stands on the ground of the old church and within the walls where Fort Remy of 1689 stood. This is truly " storied ground ! " Therefore, this old windmill and its surround ings was the centre of the Lachine of two hundred years ago. THE NIGHT BEFORE THE MASSACRE. This is a charming evening in August. 18S9 ; as we sit by the old mill and attempt to draw a picture of two hundred years ago.

The St. Law rence flowed quietly past as at present ; Lake St. Louis was then wooded down to its very water's edge; Caughnawaga point was then as now; all else unchanged. Let us suppose this to be tue evening of the 4th of August, 1689 ; the small bell of the little Catholic chapel had tolled the hour of Vespers; the devout worshippers had offered up their prayers of thankfulness to the God of Heaven ; and then " arm in arm," or "hand in hand," many Evangelines and many Gabriels, might be seen wending their way homewards ; pouring forth their simple tales of love, and arranging to meet at an early morning matin ; but, 0 God ! what a change before the morning's dawn ! They had all, priest and people, appeared before the great altar on high, to celebrate their first matins in heaven ! THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE, 1689.

In the year 1688 the inhabitants of French Canada, particularly those living on the Island of Montreal, were in constant dread of an Indian raid. It was known that year (1688) that two bands, amounting to about 1,500 Iroquois, had formed camps on the Upper St. Lawrence, one encampment being near Frontenac (Kingston), the other, farther down, on Lake St. Francis, preparatory to a descent on Montreal, to take revenge for some wrongs, real or imaginary, suffered by them at the hands of the French. During the first days of August, 1689, the people of Lachine could have seen from this Windmill Point stray Indian canoes darting across Lake St. Louis, from the neighbourhood of Isle Perrot to the Chateauguay shore. Such a sight in those early days was a common thing, of every day occurrence, and caused no alarm, and was no indication that at that very time there lay hidden nearly two hundred Indian canoes and about fifteen hundred wild Iroquois, in concealment behind those small islands along the south shore of Lake St. Louis, between the Caughnawaga point and the mouth of the Chateauguay river.

On the night of the 4th of August, 1689, a heavy storm of thunder, hail and rain passed over Lake St. Louis, and during the prevailing darkness that followed the storm, this band of 1,500 Iroquois crossed over to Lachine, a distance of about five miles from their hiding place, and landed between the Windmill Point and the present Lachine Canal. In those early days there was a large bay or inlet between where stood the old Grammar School of sixty years ago, and the first locks built on the Lachine Canal ; this was just at the entrance of that great marsh which then passed between Cote St. Pierre and Cote St. Paul. This was the actual landing place of that savage band of Iroquois. From their landing place they spread right and left ; quietly surrounding every house and ham let ; this was about ten at night.

The unsuspect ing inmates had early retired to rest ! The dread Indian war-whoop was raised about midnight ; a sound too well known in Canada in early days. Then commenced the work of death ! No " door posts nor lintels " were sprinkled with the blood of the passover lamb, as in the days of Moses, to stay the hand of the destroyer ; for within the space of one hour, over two hundred persons fell victims to the uplifted tomahawk and the un sheathed scalping knife of those dread savages ! THE MORNING AFTER THE MASSACRE. The thunderstorm is over-^the death scene of the past night is ended ! And the morning of the 5th of August, 1689, witnessed, as usual, a glorious sunrise shedding his first rays across Lake St. Louis, and smiling, " as if earth con tained no tomb ! " But the silence of death reigned supreme along the whole front of the Lachine shore !

There was not one living soul left to tell the dread tale of the past night ! There were no mourners there ! No Bachel weeping for her lost ones — all were dead ! Nor man, nor child, nor thing of living birth. No ! not the dog that watched the household hearth escaped that night of blood ! All perished ! The mangled bodies of grey-haired sire and grandchild ; victims of the tomahawk and scalping knife, lay thick around ; while the blood thirsty Iroquois, the only witnesses of this scene of blood, were holding high carnival over their work of death ! And naught was heard there save the wild chant of the dread Indians' dismal song — all else was silent ! THE INDIAN CAMP OF 1689. The Iroquois were not wanting in military tactics ; to conceal their whereabouts from their enemy — the French, they hauled up their canoes about a mile into the deep forest, where they established their camp or headquarters ; their plunder was carried there.

They found in the trading stores at Lachine a large supply of French brandy and wines, of which they supplied them selves freely, and became beastly drunk for days. The exact position of this " Indian camp of 1689 " is not known to the present generation ; but to the boys of the old grammar school of Lachine of sixty years ago it was a familiar spot. The boys then, with their bows and arrows and fishing lines, with hooks made from pins, used to fish there for brook trout and minnows in that branch of the St. Pierre which ran back of Lachine and crossed the Upper Lachine Road near by the present Blue Bonnets. It was then a large stream, having a depth of two or three feet of water in midsummer. It has since disappeared — dried up — by new water courses having been cut. This camp was over a mile from the river shore, close by the present Dominion station, on the Lachine railway, and extending back to the foot of Cote St. Luke.

The branch of the St. Pierre passed through the centre of the camp ; to this place, in the then deep forest, the Iroquois hauled up their canoes. It is not improbable that in those early days scouting parties from this camp found sufficient depth of water to use their canoes to pass on close to Montreal through that deep marsh, between Cote St. Paul and Cote St. Pierre, which was a lake in early days ; if so, their camp was wisely selected for offensive operations, being difficult of approach or finding out. If the reader will take a seat with us on the brow of Cote St. Luke, behind the present Fashion race course, above the Blue Bonnets, he will have a full view right below him, stretching over to the Dominion station, of the very identical spot of this historical Indian camp of 1689 ; on which this band of 1,500 savage Iroquois had their headquarters for over two months ; the plunder of the Island of Montreal was carried there, and such of the inhabitants as were reserved for future torture were held there as captives.

SUBERCASE'S ADVANCE. On the 5th of August, 1689, the day after the massacre, Subercase, a young French officer, who had about 200 regulars under him in a stockade on the Lower Lachine Road, some three miles from the Windmill Point, advanced to this scene of blood ; the ruins of this stockade are still to be seen ne ar Knox's mills, and which is stated in the history of that time to have been six miles distant from Montreal. When Subercase with his band, now increased to about 300 men, had reached late in the day that scene of death, a horrible sight met their gaze — the houses still burning, and the bodies of their former inmates strewn about or hanging from the stakes on which they had been tor tured. They then learned that the Iroquois were all encamped about a mile farther on in the deep forest, and that they were then beastly and hope lessly drunk from the brandy taken from the storehouses of the traders at Lachine.

This was the time to strike a decisive blow ! The opportunity was lost ! The drawn sword of the avenger was stayed ! Sword in hand, at the head of his men, this daring young officer, Subercase, entered the deep forest, resolved on deadly revenge, and had he been allowed to proceed, the vengeance he would have dealt out would have rivalled in story the " Relief of Lucknow " of our own day ! But at that moment a voice was heard from the rear, commanding a halt ; it was that of the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, just arrived from Montreal, by the Lower Lachine Road, with positive orders from Denonville, the Governor, to run no risks, and stand solely on the defensive. Subercase was furious. High words passed between him and Vaudreuil, but he was forced to obey. The sword of the avenger was sheathed, a grand opportunity was lost, and lost forever.

THE CLOSING SCENE. It is not our intention to chronicle the bloody deeds of those dark days during the two months THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE. the Iroquois held possession of the island, rav aging the whole country for a circuit of about twenty miles, even up to the palisades and gates of Montreal, The reader will find a full account in the history of Canada at that time. They finally took to their canoes in the middle of October ; crossing over to the Chateauguay shore, carrying with them over one hundred captives or prisoners reserved for torture there. On the night after those fiends in human form had left, there were gathered on the Lachine shore, groups stricken dumb through terror, of speechless, stupefied men, women and children, gazing in breathless silence — the silence of despair !— on the fires that shed their lights across Lake St. Louis, in which their captive friends, their wives, their parents and children agonized — suffering death in forms too horrible to dwell upon.

The closing act of those savage demons on the Chateauguay shore was even more appalling than the opening one at Lachine on the night of the 4th of August, 1689. LANDING OF GENERAL AMHERST'S ARMY. Seventy years later, in the early days of Sep tember, 1760, the people of Lachine saw another sight, but not " at dead of night." This was the approach of Amherst's army of about 10,000 men, advancing on Montreal. Their boats of all kinds — canoes, bateaux, barges and scows, must have amounted to thousands, and literally speaking, covered Lake St. Louis. This armament was prepared on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, below Kingston, on the present American shore, then British. They descended the rapids of the St. Lawrence and anchored in front and above Lachine. The army advanced in the rear of Montreal by the roads leading to the back of the mountain.

In the writer's young days there were a good many old men living at Lachine who had been eye-witnesses of the landing of this army, being, we believe, the largest British army ever landed at one time at any one place in America. The writer will, further on, give a fuller account of this army. Suffice it to say that Montreal was captured, or, rather, capitulated, by which the whole of Canada became at the time of the cession a British colony. THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE. THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF LACHINE. This was a celebrated school sixty years ago ; it had a Government grant of £100 a year, and there were usually eighty boys attending it. The boys of the North-West and the Hudson Bay Company were sent down to be educated there, and there were always some twenty boys from Montreal as boarders there.

We could name a long list of North-West boys — the McKenzies, Keiths, McLeods, Seivewrights, McMurrays, McGillivrays, Rowands, &c. Dr. Rowand, of Quebec, was a scholar there; also the Lieut.- Governor of Ontario, Sir Alexander Campbell, was one of the boys there for two years. The most noted teacher was David Jones ; he retired to Quebec in 1831 and died there. THE CANADIAN HOME OF ROBERT DE LA SALLE.

Chapter II. The Canadian Home Of Robert De La Salle

Sometime between the years 1609 and 1615, Champlain, then Governor of French Canada, established three fur-trading posts, one at Tadousac, one at Three Rivers, the other at the head of the Rapids, at Lower Lachine, eight miles above Montreal. This was done thirty years before the foundation of Montreal in 1642, by Maisonneuve, and a dozen to fifteen years previous to the formation of the company of the " One Hundred Associates." The post at Lachine, being just below the junction of the Ottawa with the St. Lawrence, became the most important trading post in the colony, and was periodically visited, spring and fall, by the various tribes of Indians living on the shores of the Upper Ottawa and the lakes emptying into the St. Lawrence, to sell or to exchange their furs. About fifty years after the establishment of the post at Lachine, there landed, sometime dur ing the year 1666, on the spot where the found ation of Montreal had been laid some twenty-five years previous, a youth from old France, in his 24th year, of manly form and noble bearing, whose calm exterior bespoke one who would shrink from no danger, and who would cling with unflinching tenacity to any cause he might espouse.

This youth was Robert de La Salle, who for twenty-one years acted a most conspicuous part in the early history of Canada. La Salle, in quest of new discoveries, and with the hope of finding a water-way through Canada to China, travelled and re-travelled over the then unbroken forests of the great West, and traversed and re-traversed — or rather coasted — in his frail Indian canoe, all of our vast inland lakes, and westward and southward by the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the then other unknown rivers, in search of the great object of his ambi tion, until he met his death in March, 1687, somewhere, we believe, on the banks of the Missouri. The present is not to deal with La Salle's discoveries or explorations — these are matters of history — but simply to point out a spot, an old landmark, nearer our own home, of which few, probably not one in a thousand of the inhabitants of Montreal, is aware.

It is the Canadian home of Robert de La Salle — the home in which he lived for some four years of his early Canadian life, and in which he planned and matured the great schemes which engrossed the last sixteen years of his life. Champlain died in 1635, and about the year 1644, the gentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice acquired, or had granted to them, the Island of Montreal, as Seigneurs. La Salle, shortly after his arrival, acquired from the Seminary of St. Sulpice a grant of land at Lower Lachine, as seigneur, which included the trading post established by Champlain. On the Lower Lachine Road, two miles above the Lachine Rapids, just at the head of the " new inland cut" of the Montreal Water Works, on the " Fraser Homestead Farm," adjoining the old "English King's Posts," (which was also part of the La Salle estate), stands an old stone building, sixty feet fronting on the road, and some thirty feet deep, one storey and a half high.

The inside has a cellar, two floors and a garret, the walls are pierced for over thirty gun or loop holes, which are quite perfect inside, but the out side of them (the gun-holes) has, from time to time, been plastered over to keep out the cold, to protect it for the uses to which this old building has been turned in later years. The first floor is a good deal broken up, having been used for many years as a cider-house ; the old mill and cider-presses are still there. The outside walls still present a fair appearance, except the east gable-end, which is a little separ ated at the top from the main building. The inside timbers are nearly as sound to-day as when built, except where rain has reached them. This was the home of Robert de LaSalle, a name dear to all Canadians. How few now know of its existence, and fewer still of its whereabouts !