1846.
Boundary surveys in North America—Duties of the party engaged in it—Mode of ascertaining longitudes—Trials of the party; Owen Lonergan—The sixty-four mile line—Official recognition of its services—Sergeant James Mulligan—Kaffir war—Corporal B. Castledine—Parties employed at the guns—Graham’s Town—Fort Brown—Patrols—Bridge over the Fish River—Field services with the second division—Dodo’s kraal—Waterloo Bay—Field services with the first division—Patrol under Lieutenant Bourchier—Mutiny of the Swellandam native infantry—Conduct of corps in the campaign—Alterations in the dress—Drainage of Windsor—Detachment to Hudson’s Bay—Its organization—Journey to Fort Garry—Sergeant Philip Clark—Private R. Penton—Corporal T. Macpherson—Lower Fort Garry—Particular services—Return to England.
The survey of the boundary between the British possessions in North America and the United States, as settled by the treaty of Washington, was completed this year. Six non-commissioned officers selected for the duty embarked at Liverpool in April, 1843, and landing at Boston, thence re-embarked on board a coasting steamer, and sailed to St. John’s, New Brunswick. By boat they then passed on to Fredericton, and on the 1st June commenced operations at the Grand Falls. All were dressed in plain clothes. Corporals James Mulligan, Daniel Rock, and Alfred Garnham had been for three months at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and were instructed in the mode of making and computing such astronomical observations, as were considered best suited to the service to be performed.[[473]] Very soon the detachment “drew forth the praise and admiration of the American party. The Americans,” adds the despatch, “had no persons to stand in the place of them.” So useful were they found in the service, that, in the second season, when the work of the commission had to be extended, the detachment was increased to twenty men of all ranks.[[474]]
Captains Broughton, Robinson, and Pipon, R.E., commanded the party under Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt, the chief commissioner; and at the close of the second season, the survey had so far progressed, that nine men were removed from the duty, and arrived at Woolwich in January, 1845. The services of three other men were dispensed with at the close of 1845, and reaching head-quarters in December, they were followed, on the 9th July, 1846, by four more. Three were discharged in Canada, and the twentieth man, corporal Garnham, arrived in England 10th September, 1846.
A few details of this international service would seem to be required to explain the nature of the duties intrusted to the men. Having once entered the woods, the survey was continued without interruption, until the termination of the out-door operations of 1845. Occasionally the men worked in concert with the officers of the United States' topographical engineers. Two non-commissioned officers were constantly employed under Captains Robinson and Pipon, in taking and calculating observations for latitudes and longitudes, and for absolute longitudes by lunar transits and culminating stars, to discover the azimuthal bearings of the line, as pointed out by the treaty of Washington. They also ascertained the comparative heights of astronomical stations, &c., at various points of the line from barometrical observations. One non-commissioned officer for many months was attached to the American party to see that they effected their survey according to the treaty; one carried the chronometers between the astronomical camps; and the remainder were employed singly in charge of large parties of labourers and axemen, carrying on the general business of marking out the boundary, and of surveying and levelling it. Embraced in the operations also was the survey of the waters, roads, and other prominent objects in the vicinity of the line, essential to the discovery of the boundary, at any time, by reference to the natural features of the country; and when the survey closed in 1845, seven of the party were, for more than eight months, stationed with the commission at Washington, engaged in the duty of computing and registering astronomical observations, also in laying down and plotting the work and finishing the plans of the line.
The process of surveying and levelling is too well known to need notice, but it may be desirable to afford an idea of one description of work, to show in what respect assistance was given to obtain the longitude of a particular place. Between the northwest branch-station and Quebec, it was required to ascertain the difference of longitude; but as the usual method of finding it by the interchange of chronometers could not be resorted to, a hill some twenty miles away from the branch station, which could be seen from Quebec, was selected as the station for an observing party. Captain Pipon, therefore, left the woods, and established his transit instrument on the Plains of Abraham. With a pocket chronometer, tent, provisions, gunpowder, &c., sergeant Bernard M‘Guckin removed to a range of hills from the station above Lake Ishæganalshegeck, and encamped himself and his labourers on the highest point of the range, which was covered to the top with dense wood. Climbing the height, and finding he could see back to the Lake Hill and forward to Quebec, he set his labourers to clear away the summit, except one high tree which he stript of all the leaves and branches likely to intercept the free range of the observations. At the base of this tree he constructed a high platform, and every evening for two hours, at intervals of ten minutes, the sergeant fired flashes of gunpowder, by hoisting the charge, with the assistance of a pulley, to the top of the tree with a burning slow match attached. The quantity of powder used for each flash varied from a quarter to half a pound. Some of the nights the wind blew strongly, and the charge exploded before reaching the top of the tree. On a clear night the flashes could be seen with the naked eye at the Quebec observatory, forty miles distant. Simultaneous observations were made on six different evenings, and forty-six flashes were noted, sufficient to give a good difference of longitude. The result of the experiment was most successful. An attempt was afterwards made to find the difference of longitude between the stations, by the transmission of chronometers; but the effect deduced was worthless compared with that obtained from the flashes. These observations were a part of the scheme for tracing the straight sixty-four mile line of boundary from the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook to the hill station on Lake Ishæganalshegeck. When the observations were completed, Captain Robinson left the woods and placed his chronometers in charge of a non-commissioned officer of sappers at Montreal, who wound them up and compared them during the winter.[[475]]
The accuracy of this means of observation was further tested on the western portion of the line ending at St. Regis by the operations of corporal Bastard. In August, 1845, having selected the highest summit on Mount Rougement, near Chambly, for a station, he reciprocated flashes with Major Graham of the U. S. topographical engineers at Rouse’s Point, with great precision and success.[[476]] The same was done by corporal Thomas Forbes from the top of Jay’s Peak in Vermont, who flashed at ten-minute intervals from the surface of a piece of flat board. In six fine nights eighty flashes were observed in common. These series of observations connected the points of St. Regis and St. Helen’s, and the latter again with Rouse’s, testing at the same time the difference of longitude between the several stations.[[477]]
When not in tents, a sort of hut constructed on the spot was the only habitation of the surveyors, and twigs of the spruce tree, felled by the axemen, formed their bed. They had good blankets and warm clothing; but such was the severity of the weather, and such the inconvenience of their bivouac, that frequently in the morning they arose for work either with stiffened limbs, or soaked with melted snow. For the most part, however, the detachment was free from sickness despite the intense cold in winter, and the great heat in summer. Locked as they were in a thick forest, covered by an impenetrable foliage, the oppressive heat of midsummer was almost insupportable. In the spring scurvy was common among them, accompanied with sore gums, loose teeth, discoloured legs, and emaciated frames, but some well-known simple specifics soon restored them to health.[[478]] Only one man became an invalid on the duty, arising from an injury he sustained by falling from a shelving bank, on account of which he was sent home and discharged.
The royal engineers with their sappers and assistants were the first to penetrate these wilds and the first to open a way through their mazes. Scrambling through an unbroken forest with snow-shoes on, interrupted at every step by stunted underwood, not a little augmented their fatigues. Often the snow was hip deep; and when the melting commenced, the obstacles and toils of travelling became greater. The snow-shoes then became useless, and yet without them the men sank above their knees in half-thawed snow, and then had to wade through the swamp. Streams in those seasons became rivers, and rivers deep torrents; and such was the difficulty of pushing through the snow, that one party was four days going ten miles.[[479]] Difficulties like these were more especially felt in the region embraced within the “sixty-four mile line.” A vast prairie it was, thickly overgrown with tangled bush, undisturbed for centuries, by the axe of industry. The full influence of many a storm, however, had beaten down the forest and levelled trees too old to bear its blast. These lay across the track intersected and confused, just as the wind had blown them; and the dense bush, climbing over the aged trunks, so matted the vegetation, that the trials of travelling were only overshot by the general hardships of the enterprise. There were perils too encountered of a serious character, which only stout frames and sturdy hearts could have conquered. On one occasion, corporal Owen Lonergan was sent to measure three check lines; it was biting cold at the time, and the ground was covered with snow some two or three feet deep. Though encumbered with an instrument, a greatcoat, and heavy clothes, he entered with spirit upon his work and rapidly completed two of the checks, but on commencing the third he was obliged to relinquish it, as his hands, painfully benumbed, had lost their power. The snow by this time was very high, and it was only by superhuman effort, sustained for several hours, that he succeeded in mastering the difficulties of his situation, and regaining his hut before nightfall.
The survey of the sixty-four mile line was important because of the necessity imposed by the treaty of making it rigidly strait. A force of labourers, guided in the duty by the most intelligent men with the commission, first struck out the line as indicated by astronomical observation. When this preliminary trace was effected, other labourers, in strong batches, “directed by non-commissioned officers of the sappers and miners were sent to cut the whole line thirty feet wide, clearing a way in the centre, of about eight feet wide, but leaving the other part with the stumps breast high and the trees as they had fallen. These parties were guided in their cuttings by the marks which had been set up on the ridges at no very great distances apart from each other. When the line had been thus cut out from end to end, a transit instrument was sent through it, adjusting correctly all the station poles, and insuring the straightness of the line beyond all doubt.”[[480]]
At the termination of the survey, Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt thus wrote of the conduct and services of the detachment: “I beg to acknowledge the valuable assistance they have rendered. The character of the duties intrusted to them has been such as must have been given to an officer had they not been attached to the commission, entailing thereby a great additional expense, not only on the score of wages, but also of equipment and assistance; and I doubt whether the work would have been better executed. All that was expected, therefore, from their employment has been fully realized; their efficiency in the field, and their general good conduct and respectability, have been very creditable to them and to their corps. Those who are now about to leave us, and have been at Washington during all our residence here, deserve the highest commendation for their uniform good conduct. In no single instance has there been the least occasion for complaint or even remark.” In his orders to the detachment at parting, he reiterated the substance of the above tribute, and spoke of the unmixed satisfaction he would look back upon the whole of his intercourse with the sappers. The survey pay of the men, in addition to their regimental pay, ranged between 2s. 10d. and 3s. 9d. a-day, and free rations and hotel expenses were also allowed them.[[481]]
The war in Kaffirland again broke out this year and afforded ample employment for the two companies of the corps, which were scattered in sections to the several posts on the frontier. A small detachment of sappers appears to have been the first troops to meet with hostile interruption in the prosecution of its duties, and the circumstance is quaintly alluded to in the following free metrical effusion of a facetious alarmist:—
“There was a stir in Kaffirland one morning,
A chief with Government some ground disputed;
And then he very fairly sent us warning
Our plans and his were totally unsuited:
So Colonel Hare, as did of old, Mahomet,
Call’d for his boots, and flar’d up like a comet.
“Meanwhile Sandeli, who’s a lad of metal,
Swore that the sappers should not light a fire
To cook their dinners or to boil their kettle;
And so—denouncing on them vengeance dire,—
He bid them pack their tools and strike their tents,
And made believe to seize their instruments.”[[482]]
The nature of the service upon which the companies were employed precluded them from taking any very active or prominent share in the operations of the campaign, or of their numbers being collected in any force to render their movements impressive and conspicuous; nevertheless, as opportunities offered of withdrawing them from their more pacific duties, they were made to participate with the other troops in the harassing war which, without intermission, continued with vigour until the winter.
Corporal Benjamin Castledine, ordered to proceed from Fort Beaufort to Post Victoria, started on the 21st March, 1846, with a gunner of the royal artillery who was armed with a sword only, in charge of a waggon with twelve oxen and two natives—a driver and a leader—who had one musket between them. In crossing a drift, after marching seven miles, the oxen were knocked up, and the corporal sent the driver back for more cattle. At night the corporal took turn as sentry with the artilleryman. Next morning at daylight, the leader was ordered to collect the cattle then grazing about three hundred yards off; but while away, shots were heard in the direction he had taken. The corporal, leaving the waggon in charge of the artilleryman, ran to the banks of the drift, and before he had time to seek cover in the bush, was met by a volley from several armed Kaffirs, who had already wounded the leader and taken his gun. The corporal stood his ground, and wounding two of their number by his correct firing, the rest carried off the injured men and drove away the corporal’s cattle. Luckily, soon afterwards, a patrol of one sergeant and seven men of the 7th dragoon guards came up, and hearing what had happened, they pursued the Kaffirs and retook the oxen. The corporal with his escort and cattle, except two of the latter, which were lost on the road from exhaustion, resumed the route and reached Post Victoria on the 22nd March. Colonel Somerset, then commanding the frontier, hearing through Lieutenant Stokes, R.E., of the affair, gave corporal Castledine much credit for his conduct. This was the first skirmish in the war.
From the 16th to 18th April three men served with a demibattery of artillery as gunners, during Colonel Somerset’s operations in the Amatola mountains, and retreat from Burn’s hill to Block drift, where they were present in a smart action.
Ten men took part with the artillery at the guns, from 20th April to 29th September, at Victoria, Fort Beaufort, and Block drift. At these forts and at Graham’s Town the men for weeks together lay down in their clothes and accoutrements ready to meet any sudden attack. At Beaufort, four guns were manned by them, two 9-pounders and two 5½-inch howitzers: one of these had horses attached, which were mounted by the sappers.
Graham’s Town, denuded of its garrison to scour the Amatolas, was left unprotected. Bodies of Kaffirs pressed into the colony, marking their track by murder and desolation. Tidings of their savage proceedings being brought in by mounted burghers, breathless with the intelligence, it was feared the town would be early attacked. At once the engineer at the station set to work to fortify it, and with the assistance of some Fingoes and Hottentots, the few sappers that remained rapidly blockaded the streets and avenues leading into the town. The return, however, of Colonel Somerset’s division checked the enemy’s advance on this, the metropolis of the frontier.[[483]]
On the 23rd April, under Lieutenant Bourchier, R.E., fifty-one non-commissioned officers and men repulsed an attack by the enemy on the Farmer’s camp near Fort Brown. The action lasted about four hours, and though the night was extremely dark, the sappers, serving both as infantry and artillery in charge of two field-pieces, beat off the enemy with the loss, as was afterwards acknowledged by the chief Stock, of thirty killed. The sappers only were engaged in this affair, and their spirited and gallant conduct was reported by Lieutenant Bourchier.
On the 17th and 31st May and 1st and 18th June, about forty non-commissioned officers and men, sent from Fort Brown under Lieutenant Bourchier, went in pursuit of marauding parties of the enemy. From Double drift under the same officer, four other parties were despatched through the bush after the Kaffirs on the 25th June, 7th July, and 7th and 18th August. Sergeant Thomas P. Cook and corporal John Campbell were reported to have shown great determination and intelligence in following the enemy in their fastnesses. The former accompanied six of the patrols and the latter seven. Near Fort Brown, three Kaffir spies, discovered creeping up to the place to reconnoitre, were shot; two of these were brought down by privates Alexander Irvine and John Patterson.
From 3rd June to 13th July, ten men with a company of the 90th regiment, fifty marines and some sailors, under Lieutenant Owen, R.E., constructed a flying bridge of boats, &c. for crossing the Fish river mouth, and threw up a field-work on the right bank. In this service private John Vance, a superior carpenter, “showed remarkable zeal, skill, and intelligence.” The work was undertaken to establish an open line of communication to Fort Peddie.[[484]]
Under Lieutenant Stokes, R.E., twelve men shared in the operations with the second division in the field and at the passage at the mouth of the Keiskama river from the 6th to 16th July. From the latter date to the 13th September, under the same officer, six other privates served with the second division during Sir Peregrine Maitland’s attack upon the Amatola mountains, and constructed a field-work for the protection of the camp at Perie.
On the 15th and 16th July, sixteen non-commissioned officers and men under Lieutenant Bourchier were present in action with the enemy at Dodo’s kraal, under the command of Captain Hogg, 7th dragoon guards.
From the 16th July to 13th September, twelve men constructed a field-work for the protection of the camp at Waterloo Bay under Lieutenant Owen, R.E.
From 20th July to 12th September, thirty-eight non-commissioned officers and men served in the field with the first division during Sir Peregrine Maitland’s attack on the Amatola mountains; and under the direction of Captain Howorth, R.E., restored Fort Cox. On the 29th July the camp on the Amatola flats was attacked by the enemy, and sergeant Joseph Barns of the corps was killed.
Seven men under Lieutenant Bourchier were present, from the 25th to 30th August, with Colonel Somerset’s patrol between the Fish river and the Keiskama.
On 24th October, the Swellandam native infantry at Fort Beaufort, directed to escort waggons to Waterloo Bay, marched from the parade, contrary to the remonstrances of their officers towards Graham’s Town. There were about 350 of the levy present, and the simultaneous and unhesitating movement of the mutineers, gave reason to fear that the conspiracy was well organized. Captain Ward, of the 91st regiment, the commandant, at once ordered the two artillerymen and five sappers under corporal Edward Barnecoat to follow in pursuit with the three-pounder howitzer. This was all the commandant’s force. The gun was up in a few minutes, and bounding down the street, reached the bridge, where halting, the captain ordered the howitzer to be put in action. With only eight men Captain Ward thought it imprudent to proceed further. Trying the effect of firing three rounds of blank ammunition, the mutineers pushed up the acclivity with increased speed at every discharge, and reforming on its brow, seemed disposed to hazard a fight. At this moment a detachment of the 90th regiment—which happened to be at the fort on escort duty—pressed up to the bridge. Immediately the gun was limbered up and when the little column was about to scale the height, Colonel Richardson, who had now arrived, countermanded the order to advance. With only a handful of men, there was but a remote chance of success against 350 exasperated rebels all armed and posted on commanding ground; and so swayed by merciful considerations the colonel employed two missionaries to parley with the misguided men, who, soon, in great part, returned to their allegiance.[[485]]
These comprise the active services of the companies during the year, in which, though the parties do not appear to have gained any mention in dispatches or reports for their conduct and efficiency, they always behaved like good soldiers, and spared no exertion to accomplish the objects for which they were employed. They were likewise much harassed on varied escort duty, such as conveying from fort to fort waggons with ammunition, provisions, and wounded men, and took part in all those multifarious services, carried on at twenty different frontier posts and forts, which the character of that desultory and peculiar warfare continually exacted.
In April, the small blocked epaulettes were superseded by others with loose twisted cords of three inches long suspended from a raised corded crescent. Those for the sergeants and staff-sergeants were of the artillery pattern—long loose gold fringe and gilt crescent to correspond with the privates' epaulettes. The shoulder-strap for the sergeants and other ranks was of blue cloth faced with gold lace. The staff-sergeants' epaulettes continued boxed as before, with a full laced gold strap edged with raised embroidered wire, and a gilt crescent, but the bullion was longer than formerly. The collar of the coatee for all ranks, which had a triangular-shaped piece of scarlet cloth at the back, was this year entirely of blue cloth, but laced as before, with rectangular loops. The alteration was made to give, in appearance, breadth and squareness to the men’s shoulders.
Corporal John Rae, second-corporal John Mealey and eighteen men, were employed from the 8th June to the 17th August, in executing some underground works for the drainage of Windsor. These consisted of a tunnel or cutting from the entrance of the long walk to the north side of the quadrangle of the castle, and also the excavation of a driftway under the north front, moving east and west. The tunnel was approached from several circular shafts 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, of an average depth of about 25 feet; and the gallery—the height of which was six feet, and width 4 feet 6 inches—was driven between 750 and 800 feet through chalk, flint, made earth, old moats, and crumbling vaults and foundations; and, notwithstanding the difficulties of the work, was prosecuted with such exactness, that the line of driving between the shafts, was rarely more than an inch or two out of its true level. Indeed, it was remarked that the tunnel, commenced at opposite sides of the castle, was so correct in its progress, that on reaching the centre, there did not exist two inches of difference where the tunnels merged into one.[[486]] In hazardous earth, mining frames and sheeting were resorted to, but even these expedients, at times, did not prevent the earth from falling and impeding the workmen. Thirty civil labourers worked the windlasses and drove the barrows for the party. All hands worked from five in the morning until half-past six in the evening, and made by their exertions, seven days and a half a-week, at 1s. 6d. each a-day. Captain Vetch, late of the corps, was the engineer for the work, and Lieutenant the Honourable H. F. Keane, commanded the detachment. The Board of Woods and Forests paid the expenses of the undertaking, and praised the skill and energy with which the excavations had been conducted and completed. The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury also acknowledged the great advantage which resulted from the employment of the sappers on the occasion.
Sergeant Philip Clark and eleven rank and file embarked at Deptford, in the ‘Blenheim,’ on the 3rd of June, 1846, for the territories of the Hudson’s Bay Company. A detachment of artillery, and three companies of the 6th foot, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Crofton, were also with the expedition. The employment of this small force on the Red River was occasioned by the menacing hauteur of the Americans respecting the Oregon territory, which at this period was a momentous question between the two countries; but fortunately, the dispute terminated in a treaty which settled amicably the national differences.
The party was composed of excellent mechanics and well-conducted men, two of whom were also good surveyors and draughtsmen. Three chronometers and barometers, with measuring chains and surveying instruments, were placed in charge of sergeant Clark. Captain H. C. B. Moody, R.E., took command of the party on its landing at York Factory on the 14th of August, and subsequently, for about a year, the command was held by Captain Beatty, R.E.
It was not intended to attach the sappers to the divisions of the troops in pushing up the country, but to employ them on services for which they were more peculiarly adapted, such as measuring the heights of the several falls in the course of the rivers that occasion the necessity for the portages, and improving the latter whenever any short proceeding would give them facilities for doing it: also cutting, on prominent objects, bench marks to show the height of the water for the information of travellers, and embodying in memoranda a description of the nature of the ground traversed and the features of the country, with suggestions for improving the passage. Owing, however, to the scarcity of officers, the colonel in command could not permit the employment of the detachment in this manner. Accordingly, eight men accompanied the first division of the force, two the second, and two, with Captain Moody, the third. The first party took the barometers; and the chronometers were taken by the two surveyors in the 3rd brigade. In concert with the troops, they tracked, hauled, rowed, and poled the boats the whole way to Fort Garry; and, notwithstanding the intensity of the cold, such was the nature of the duty, it required them in its execution, to go barefooted with their trousers tied above the knee. At night, for a few hours only, they slept under canvas frequently in wet clothes, upon the damp snow-covered ground. The distance traversed was about 400 miles, through swamps and rapids, over rocky islets, and up and down steep and slippery banks and declivities; and the operation, one of immense difficulty and peril, was not achieved without much labour and discomfort.
At each portage, sergeant Clark himself carried the chronometers, and, after examining them, placed a sentry to watch them. He also measured the heights of the falls and took the difference of the levels. In shoal water, or in running the several rapids, the delicate instruments were invariably removed from the boats to save them from shocks by bumping against hidden rocks and impediments. The chronometers were wound up every morning at nine o’clock, and the results and comparative differences registered. Three times a day the indications of the barometers, the changes in the atmosphere, and the force and direction of the wind were registered, and these observations were recorded until the expedition quitted the settlement.
Sergeant Clark and private Robert Penton showed great zeal and intelligence in the manner they carried out their scientific duties on the route, and corporal Thomas R. Macpherson, who had charge of the party that accompanied the first brigade from York Factory, was commended for the notes he took of the route, and for the report he framed thereon.
At Lower Fort Garry, the troops, under the officers of engineers, with the sappers as overseers, made a trench round the fortress, and cleared away the wood contiguous to it for 300 yards in every direction. A varying party was detached with corporal Macpherson to Upper Fort Garry; and at both places, the sappers carried out all those services which the nature of the settlement and the weather made indispensable for the health and accommodation of the troops. While at work the detachment wore leather jackets and trousers.
In the second year of the station, corporal Macpherson with one sapper was sent to York Factory, and returned in charge of the magnetic and other instruments left there the year before. Although the intricacies of the passage were considerable, increased by the necessity of personally carrying the cases over the portages, he safely conveyed them to the fort without detriment or derangement. Some of the party were employed at intervals, in the survey of portions of the Assimboine, Saskatchewan and Red Rivers, and corporal Macpherson[[487]] and second-corporal Penton, under Captain Moody, examined and explored the country in the vicinity of the boundary line of the United States at Pambina.
On the 3rd of August, 1848, the sappers quitted Fort Garry under the command of Captain Blackwood Price, R.A.—Captain Moody having then returned to Canada—and after completing the arduous and fatiguing descent to York Factory, they embarked there on the 24th of August, and landed at Woolwich, 18th of October, 1848. Both Lieutenant-Colonel Crofton, and Major Griffiths, his successor in command, awarded an honourable meed of approbation to the detachment for its exemplary conduct and services; but sergeant Clark was particularly noticed by the former for his attainments and ready zeal. “His exertions,” adds the Colonel, “were never wanting, even in matters not in immediate connexion with the corps, and to him I owe the good arrangements made for the garrison library, in aid of which, his services as librarian were cheerfully given without gratuity.”[[488]] Sergeant Clark, corporal Macpherson and second-corporal Penton,[[489]] received promotion for their useful exertions on this expedition.