Here were found Lieutenants Steel and Church, who had been sent forward a second time from the Great Carrying-place with a party of men to explore and clear paths at the portages. Here also was Jakins, returned from the settlements, who made a favorable report in regard to the sentiments of the people, saying they were friendly and rejoiced at the approach of the army. Lake Megantic is thirteen miles long and three or four broad, and surrounded by high mountains. The night after entering it, the party encamped on its eastern shore, where was a large Indian wigwam, that contributed to the comfort of their quarters.
Early the next morning Arnold despatched a person to the rear of the army, with instructions to the advancing troops. He then ordered Captain Hanchet and fifty-five men to march by land along the margin of the lake, and himself embarked with Captain Oswald, and Lieutenants Steel and Church with thirteen men in five batteaux and a birch canoe, resolved to proceed as soon as possible to the French inhabitants, and send back provisions to meet the army.
In three hours they reached the northern extremity of the lake, and entered the Chaudière, which carried them along with prodigious rapidity on its tide of waters boiling and foaming over a rocky bottom. The baggage was lashed to the boats, and the danger was doubly threatening, as they had no guides. At length they fell among rapids; three of the boats were overset, dashed to pieces against the rocks, and all their contents swallowed up by the waves. Happily no lives were lost, although six men struggled for some time in the water, and were saved with difficulty. This misfortune, calamitous as it was, Arnold ascribes in his Journal to a "kind interposition of Providence"; for no sooner had the men dried their clothes and reembarked, than one of them who had gone forward cried out, "A fall ahead," which had not been discovered, and over which the whole party must have been hurried to inevitable destruction.
It is needless to say, that after this experience they were more cautious. Rapids and falls succeeded each other at short intervals. The birch canoe met the fate of the three batteaux, by running upon the rocks. Sometimes the boats were retarded in their velocity by ropes extended from the stem to the bank of the river. Two Penobscot Indians assisted them over a portage of more than half a mile in length. Through its whole extent the stream, raised by the late rains, was rough, rapid, and dangerous; but the party was fortunate in losing no lives and in advancing quickly. On the third day after leaving Lake Megantic, being the 30th of October, Arnold arrived at Sertigan, the first French settlement, four miles below the junction of the River Des Loups with the Chaudière, and seventy miles from the lake by the course of the stream.
His first care was to relieve his suffering troops, some of whom were already fainting with hunger, exhausted with fatigue, and overcome with toils and privations, to which they had never been accustomed. * He immediately sent back several Canadians and Indians with flour and cattle, who met the troops marching through the woods near the bank of the river, all their boats having been destroyed by the violence of the rapids. The whole army arrived within four or five days, emerging from the forests in small and detached parties, and greeting once more with joy unspeakable the habitations of civilized men. They were received in a friendly manner by the inhabitants, who supplied their wants with hospitable abundance, and seemed favorably inclined to the objects of the expedition, not being yet heartily reconciled to the burden of a foreign yoke, however light in itself, which the adverse fortunes of war had doomed them to wear since the brilliant victory of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham.
* So extreme was the famine for the last three or four days of the march, that dogs were killed and greedily devoured. This fact was stated by General Dearborn, who had been a captain in the expedition, in a letter to President Allen of Bowdoin College. Moose-skin moccasins were boiled to procure from them such nourishment as they afforded.
Meantime Arnold proceeded down the river to conciliate the attachment of the people, and make further preparations for the march of his army. Before leaving Cambridge, he had received ample instructions for the regulation of his conduct, drawn up with care and forethought by the Commander-in-chief, and containing express orders to treat the Canadians on all occasions as friends, to avoid every thing that should give offence or excite suspicion, to respect their religious ceremonies and national habits, to pay them liberally and promptly for supplies and assistance, to punish with severity any improper acts of the soldiery; in a word, to convince them that their interests were involved in the results of the expedition, and that its ultimate purpose was to protect their civil liberties and the rights of conscience.
He was also furnished with printed copies of a manifesto, signed by General Washington, intended for distribution among the people, explaining the grounds of the contest between Great Britain and America, and encouraging them to join their neighbors in a common cause by rallying around the standard of liberty. These instructions were strictly observed by the American troops, and had their desired influence. The impression was lasting. To this day the old men recount to their children the story of the "descent of the Bostonians," as the only great public event that has ever occurred to vary the monotonous incidents of the sequestered and beautiful valley of the Chaudière.
Ten days after reaching the upper settlements, Arnold arrived at Point Levy opposite to Quebec. His troops followed, and were all with him at that place on the 13th of November. About forty Indians had joined him at Sertigan and on the march below. He had ascertained that his approach was known in Quebec, and that all the boats had been withdrawn from the eastern side of the St. Lawrence to deprive him of the means of crossing. Eneas, the savage whom he had sent with a letter to General Schuyler, and another to a friend in Quebec, had found his way to the enemy, and given up his despatches to some of the King's officers. He pretended to have been taken prisoner; but treachery and falsehood are so nearly allied, that Eneas had the credit of both.
Between thirty and forty birch canoes having been collected, Arnold resolved to make an immediate attempt to cross the river. The first division left Point Levy at nine o'clock in the evening and landed safely on the other side, having eluded a frigate and sloop stationed in the St. Lawrence on purpose to intercept them. The canoes returned, and by four in the morning five hundred men had passed over at three separate times, and rendezvoused at Wolfe's Cove. Just as the last party landed, they were discovered by one of the enemy's guard-boats, into which they fired and killed three men. It was not safe to return again, and about one hundred and fifty men were left at Point Levy.