The other military post in this district was Sandwich, nearly opposite Detroit, and sixteen miles distant from Amherstburg. There was a mixed French and English population here, and many American settlers in the neighbourhood who had found their way to this lovely and fertile peninsula—the garden of Canada.
At this time a regiment quartered in Upper Canada was divided into several parts, sometimes hundreds of miles asunder. The posts being on the frontier line, and new roads into the interior of the United States being constantly opened out, every facility was afforded for desertion. The pay of the British soldier was small, the discipline enforced at that time very severe, and by the insidious work of agents from the neighbouring republic, desertions became very frequent.
Soon after Brock's arrival in Upper Canada, six men of a company of the 49th stationed at York, listened to the tempting proposals held out to them, and with a corporal of the 41st who had been left there in charge of some work, set off across the lake for Niagara. The news of their desertion was brought to Colonel Brock at midnight by the sergeant of the guard. With the promptness that always marked his actions he immediately ordered a boat to be manned by a sergeant and twelve privates of the light company, and with them he started on a night journey across Lake Ontario, a distance of thirty miles.
Conspiracy at Fort George
After a hard pull of eight hours they reached their destination and a search along the shore was made. A few miles from Fort Niagara on the American shore, the renegades were found. They were brought back to York and afterwards confined in the prison cells at Fort George. General Hunter found fault with the midnight expedition across the lake, as he thought the risk Brock had taken in crossing in a small open boat was too great. It was not, however, likely that a Guernsey man, inured to the perils of the coast of the Channel Islands, would hesitate to cross Lake Ontario on a summer night. Even if the dangers had been greater, Colonel Brock was not one to shirk his duty.
Once again he was called upon to undertake another expedition to enforce discipline, and again the strong arm and cool brain were needed. This time it was not desertion alone he had to cope with, but a very serious mutiny among the troops quartered at Fort George, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe, who, by his severe discipline had rendered himself very unpopular. The plan of the mutineers, as was afterwards discovered, was to place the officers in the cells, then to march to Queenston and cross the river into the state of New York. It was said too that the murder of Colonel Sheaffe was contemplated. The discovery of the plot was accidental. A servant of an officer of the Royal Artillery was met on the common by a soldier of the 49th, named Fitzpatrick, who asked him the hour. On being told Fitzpatrick exclaimed, "Thank God, I will not be too late for roll call; if I were that tyrant would give me knapsack drill for a week, but—" with an oath he muttered some threatening words and ran off to the fort. The servant reported the conversation to his master who immediately told Colonel Sheaffe. Fitzpatrick was sent for and questioned. On examination he showed such symptoms of guilt that he was put in a cell in the guard-room. Another soldier named Daly confessed to the conspiracy, and said that he had entered into it by the persuasion of Sergeant Clarke of the 49th who had told him that he and his wife and children would be much more comfortable in the United States than in the regiment.
Sheaffe sent immediate word of the conspiracy to Colonel Brock, who was then at York. The latter lost no time in hastening to the scene. The mutiny of the Nore in 1796 had taught him that promptness and decision were necessary to prevent an appalling disaster. This was no time for half measures, when the mother country was at war in Europe, and when a wily neighbour was undermining the allegiance of His Majesty's forces in America. Stern and quick must be the remedy. The vessel that brought him the news took him quickly over the lake, and, unannounced, he landed on the beach below the town and walked to the fort. The sentry on duty soon recognized the commanding figure of the colonel and called out the guard, which was commanded, as it happened, by the very sergeant who had been suspected as the instigator of the conspiracy. It was all the work of a few moments. As the guard shouldered arms the sergeant was ordered to come forward and lay down his pike, and to take off his sword and sash. As soon as this was done a corporal named O'Brien was told to bring a pair of handcuffs and put them on the sergeant who was then marched off to the cells. Then came the corporal's turn, for he too was one of those implicated, and in obedience to the stern command his arms and accoutrements were also laid down, and a soldier was ordered to handcuff him and convey him also to the cells. Brock then sent a young officer to arrest the other malcontents. Twelve men in all were put in irons and sent off to York together with the seven deserters who had been arrested some weeks before.
General Hunter directed that their trial should take place at Quebec. They were found guilty and four of the mutineers and three of the deserters were condemned to be shot. The extreme rigour of their commanding officer, Colonel Sheaffe, was the only plea they made in extenuation of their crime. The sentence was carried out on March 2nd, 1804, at Quebec. The unfortunate men declared publicly that had they continued under the command of Colonel Brock they would have escaped their melancholy end.
The sentence