Henry, according to the preface written by his daughter, was born Nov. 4th 1758, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1775—being then 17 years of age, he joined a regiment of men raised in Lancaster Co. for the purpose of joining Arnold, who at that time was stationed in Boston. His book is addressed to "my dear children" and assures them "upon the honour of a gentleman and an honest man, that every word here related, to the best of his recollection and belief is literally true." He with an officer and seven men were dispatched in advance of the army "for the purpose of ascertaining and marking the paths which were used by the Indians at the numerous places in the wilderness towards the head of the river Kennebec, and also to ascertain the course of the river Chaudière." Each day's proceedings are carefully noted, and are really highly interesting, showing the great privations they had to endure.
[254] The remains of this old French chapel were recently discovered, (the site belongs to R. R. Dobell & Co.) and a small monument erected to Father Massé who was interred there in 1646.
[255] "7th September, 1759.—Fine warm weather, Admiral Holmes' squadron weighed early this morning. At six o'clock we doubled the mouth of the Chaudière, which is near half a mile over; and at eight we came to anchor off Cap Rouge. Here is a spacious cove, into which the river St. Michael disembogues, and within the mouth of it are the enemy's floating batteries. A large body of the enemy is well entrenched round the cove, (which is of circular form) as if jealous of a descent in those parts; they appear very numerous, and may amount to about one thousand six hundred men, besides their cavalry, who are cloathed in blue, and mounted on neat horses of different colours; they seem very alert, parading and counter marching between the woods on the heights in their rear, and their breastworks, in order to make their number show to the greater advantage. The lands all around us are high and commanding, which gave the enemy an opportunity of popping at our ships, this morning, as we tacked in working up."—Knox's Journal, Siege of Quebec, 1759, vol. ii., page 56.
[256] AN EARL ON FOX-HUNTING.
The Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham addressed the following letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, in May 1870:—Sir,—The fox is tolerated, nay preserved (under the penalty of conventional ostracism against his slayers,) because he is the only animal with whose intellect man may measure himself upon equal terms without an overwhelming sense of the odds in his favour. The lion, the elephant, the ibex, the chamois, and the red deer are beasts of chase falling before man, but the fox alone can cope with him in point of intellect and sagacity, and put him to all his shifts. It is this ingredient in fox-hunting—viz: the consciousness of having to do with a foe worthy of him, which brings men of all ages, sorts, kinds, intellects, characters, and professions to the covert side, uniting together occasionally as odd an assemblage as ever went into the ark. No man, when he puts on his top-boots in the morning, can say whether he may not be about to assist at a run which may live in story like the Billesdon Coplow or the Trojan War, and of which it shall be sufficient, not only to the fortunate sportsman himself but to his descendants of the third and fourth generation, to say—he was there!
Villiers, Cholmondeley, and Forester made such sharp play,
Not omitting Germaine, never seen till to-day:
Had you jug'd of these four by the trim of their pace
At Bib'ry you'd thought they had been riding a race.
Billesdon Coplow.
"Their fame lives still. But what, O ye sentimentalists! would ye prepare both for fox and fox-hunter? If the fox was not regarded as the only animal possessed of these talents and capabilities, he must shortly rank as a sneaking little robber of hen-roosts, the foe of the good wife and gamekeeper, and become as extinct as a dodo. Were the fox himself consulted, I am sure that he would prefer to this ignoble fate the present pleasant life which he is in the habit of leading upon the sole condition of putting forth all his talent and dying game when wanted."
[257] I am indebted for a deal of information contained in this communication to McPherson LeMoyne, Esq., Seigneur of Crane Island, P.Q., and lately President of the Montreal Club for the protection of fish and game.
[258] Chs. Panet, Esq., ex-member for the County of Quebec.
[259] The sanguinary battle of Fontenoy was fought on the 11th May, 1745. The Duke of Cumberland, subsequently surnamed "the butcher," for his brutality at Culloden, commanding the English, &c, the French led by Maréchal de Saxe. This defeat, which took place under the eye of Louis XV cost the British 4041, their allies the Hanoverians, 2762 and the Dutch 1541 men. Success continued to attend the French arms at Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde, and Dendermond, which were captured—(Lord Mahon) Wolfe, Murray and Townshend were at Fontenoy. The battle of Lauffeld took place on the 2nd July, 1747, the English commanded by Cumberland, the French by Saxe, the chief of the English Cavalry, Sir John Ligonier, being taken prisoner—(Lord Mahon). The French victory of Carillon, in which the Militia of Canada bore a conspicuous part, was won near Lake George, 8th July, 1758. The English army, under General Abercrombie, though more numerous, was repulsed with great slaughter.