These western lands were then uninhabited save by the native Indian tribes and a few white settlers who had been attracted to the districts by the chances of trapping for furs or of trading with the Indians.
The gallantry of the French-speaking Britons at Quebec, in 1775, had kept the Union Jack flying above Canadian soil, and to Canada's unbroken forests the English-speaking Loyalists therefore came, leaving the old colonies because they would have their loved flag once more float above them.
Never does history relate such devoted loyalty to a flag as was shown by this migration of the U. E. Loyalists[72]—men giving up homes, farms, companionship and wealth, and with their wives and little ones following a flag for conscience' sake into an undeveloped and almost unknown land.
"Right staunch and true to the ties of old, They sacrificed their all, And into the wilderness set out, Led on by duty's call. The aged were there with their snow-white hair, And their life-course nearly run, And the tender, laughing little ones Whose race had just begun."[73]
It was enough for them that the Union Jack was the flag of Canada; so they followed it to the far north. Here they lived out the balance of their days, and, dying, have been buried in the sacred soil beneath its folds. Certain it is that their descendants will ever prove true to their loyal faith, that no other realm shall possess their bones nor other nation's flag fly above their graves.
Such, then, was the esteem in which Canadians of both races held the two-crossed Union Jack. Before the century of 1800 had commenced, the French-speaking Loyalist of Quebec had laid down his life in its defence; and having, by this loyalty, preserved it to the country, the English-speaking Loyalist here sought a new home in the far-off forests of Canada, so that he and his loved ones might continue to live again beneath its sway.
Truly was this two-crossed Union Jack the flag of Canada and the Canadians, and as truly is its three-crossed successor, our present Union Jack, the native birthright of the sons of its defenders and the successors of those patriot pioneers.