several States. Many persons were banished and prohibited from returning
to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to
the evacuation of New York, in September, 1783, "upward of twelve
thousand men, women, and children embarked at the city, at Long and
Staten islands, for Nova Scotia and the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions
were held in those days of the climate and resources of the Provinces to
which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the
Loyalists had actually fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Upper Canada; that the country where most of them settled
was superior in many respects to the New England States, and equal to
the State of New York, from which so many of them came.
It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached
British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes
soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took
place in 1783-1784. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded
the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or
twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to
the conditions of the rough country around them and soon sought homes
elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favorable parts of Nova Scotia, and
even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in the beautiful
valley of the St. John River, and founded the Province of New Brunswick.
As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in the present county
of Glengarry, in the neighborhood of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, on
the Niagara River, and near the French settlements on the Detroit. A few
also settled in the country now known as the Eastern Townships of French
Canada. A great proportion of the men were officers and soldiers of the
regiments which were formed in several colonies out of the large loyal
population.
Among them were also men who had occupied positions of influence and
responsibility in their respective communities, divines, judges,
officials, and landed proprietors, whose names were among the best in
the old colonies, as they are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave
up valuable estates which had been acquired by the energy of their
ancestors. Unlike the Puritans who founded New England, they did not
take away with them their valuable property in the shape of money and
securities or household goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or
lake, where poverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even
years in some cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had
enjoyed every comfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in
stately mansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and
can still be pointed out in New England. Many of the Loyalists were
quite unfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years
passed before they and their children conquered the wilderness and made
a livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in its grants
of lands to this class of persons in all the Provinces.
The Government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases with
food, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years they
suffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine," when
hundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots and even the buds of trees
or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived in favored
localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of all kinds, were
plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities of wild fruit
and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the people once learned
to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf may well be made
the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a long while to
accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitive pioneer life,
but now the results of the labors of these early settlers and their
descendants can be seen far and wide in smiling fields, richly laden
orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowers throughout the country
which they first made to blossom like the rose. The rivers and lakes
were the only means of communication in those early times, roads were
unknown, and the wayfarer could find his way through the illimitable
forests only by the help of the "blazed" trees and the course of
streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except in autumn and winter,
when the young managed to assemble as they always will. Love and
courtship went on even in this wilderness, though marriage was
uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare in many places, and
magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot--a very unsatisfactory
performance to the cooler lovers who loved their church, its ceremonies
and traditions, as dearly as they loved their sovereign.
The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written;
perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left records
behind them. As we wander among the old burying-grounds of those
founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray,
moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the
thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those
who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick
with hope deferred, of expectations never realized, of memories of
misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a
stubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are not simply
memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of
fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion
and self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--a
story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of the
young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of the
labors of those loyal pioneers.
Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these
founders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although the
majority lie forgotten in old grave-yards where the grass has grown
rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet the
names of all are written in imperishable letters in Provincial annals.
Those Loyalists, including the children of both sexes, who joined the
cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed
the distinction of having after their name the letters U. E. to preserve
the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. A Canadian of these
modern days, who traces his descent from such a source, is as proud of
his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of Malahide, or inheritor
of other noble names famous in the annals of the English peerage.
The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on
their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted
body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants
have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have
taken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of the
country. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service in
their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis,
Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in Nova
Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth,
Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton,
Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones; in Ontario,
Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglican clergyman),
Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Grass, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge,
Chrysler, Bethune, Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and
Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those of Wilmot, Howe,
and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible government;
those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were among the
fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most important
influence on the system of free education which Ontario now enjoys.
Among the eminent descendants of U. E. Loyalists are Sir Charles Tupper,
long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher Robinson, a
distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the Bering Sea
arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader remarkable for his
keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of financial
questions; Honorable George E. Foster, a former finance minister of
Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did space permit. In all
walks of life we see the descendants of the Loyalists, exercising a
decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion.
Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England during the
American Revolution was the famous Iroquois chief Joseph Brant, best
known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in the war, and
was for many years wrongly accused of having participated in the
massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the
Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to
eternal infamy in the verse
"The mammoth comes--the foe, the monster, Brandt--
With all his howling, desolating band;
These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine
Awake at once, and silence half your land.
Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine--
Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine."
Posterity has, however, recognized the fact that Joseph Brant was not
present at this sad episode of the American War, and the poet in a note
to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a
pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of
English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might
have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated in
these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved into
the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the Government fine
reserves of land on the Bay of Quinte, and on the Grand River in the
western part of the Province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous city
and county of Brantford and the township of Tyendinaga--a corruption of
Thayendanegea--illustrate the fame he has won in Canadian annals. The
descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till fine farms in
a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the franchises of
white men. It is an interesting fact that the first church built in
Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the communion
service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of England.
General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian
history for the coming of the Loyalists, and for the sympathetic
interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and in
alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his
government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved
conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some
Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he
left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the
peerage as Lord Dorchester.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] From _The Story of Canada_ (New York, 1896: G. P. Putnam's Sons),
by permission.
FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION
A.D. 1783
HATTON TURNOR
Few problems of invention have ever engaged more students
and experimenters than those which bear upon aerial
navigation. The history of early experiments in this
direction has a peculiar interest at present, in view of the
numerous recent trials by aeronauts in different countries.
At the time of the first balloon ascension, described by
Turnor, interest in the possibilities of aerostatics was
very active and widespread, especially among the scientific
mechanicians of Europe. Many experiments with "aerostatical
globes" and the like had been made in Great Britain and on
the Continent. Leonhard Euler, to whom Turnor refers, was a
famous Swiss mathematician who had given much study to these
things. He was in Russia, and about to die, when in France
the first aerostat, or balloon, was sent up by the
inventors, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier,
French mechanicians, who were made corresponding members of
the Academy. This form of air-balloon--the first successful
one--is known as the "Montgolfier."
A shout of joy rang through Europe, and reached the ear of the aged
Euler, on the banks of the Neva, who, between attacks of vertigo, which
were soon to carry him from this scene to a better, dictated to his sons
the calculations he had made on aerostatical globes. It is said he
ceased to calculate and live at the same instant.
The cause of so great enthusiasm had better be given in the accurate
description that immediately circulated among the peoples:
"On Thursday, June 5, 1783, the States of Vivarais being assembled at
Annonay (37 miles from Lyons), Messrs. Montgolfier invited them to see
their new aerostatic experiment.
"Imagine the surprise of the Deputies and spectators on seeing in the
public square a ball, 110 feet in circumference, attached at its base to
a wooden frame of 16 feet surface. This enormous bag, with frame,
weighed 300 lbs., and could contain 22,000 feet of vapor.
"Imagine the general astonishment when the inventors announced that, as
soon as it should be filled with gas--which they had a simple means of
making--it would rise of itself to the clouds. One must here remark
that, notwithstanding the general confidence in the knowledge and wisdom
of Messrs. Montgolfier, such an experiment appeared so incredible to
those who were present, that all doubted of its success.
"But Messrs. Montgolfier, taking it in hand, proceed to make the vapors,
which gradually swell it out till it assumes a beautiful form.
"Strong arms are now required to retain it; at a given signal it is
loosed, rises with rapidity, and in ten minutes attains a height of 6000
feet; it proceeds 7668 feet in a horizontal direction, and gently falls
to the ground.
"Just as the Omnipotent, who turns
The system of a world's concerns,
From mere minutiae can educe
Events of the most important use;
But who can tell how vast the plan,
Which this day's incident began?"
The effect of this letter in England was to cause a display of jealousy
at which we might now blush, if we do not remember that the sagacious
and convincing views of Adam Smith on political economy had only just
been published and had not yet had time to circulate; for, though we
were obliged to admit a discovery had been made in France, yet the
periodicals argued that all the experiments that had led to it were made
in England. Many were the caricatures which appeared.
In a discourse at the Academy of Lyons, Jacques Montgolfier says that a
French copy of Priestley's _Experiments relating to the Different Kinds
of Air_ came in his way, and was to him like light in darkness; as from
that moment he conceived the possibility of navigating the air, but,
after some experiments in gas, he again tried smoke and hot air.
In Paris this intelligence caused a meeting of savants, who, by the
advice of M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, started a public subscription for
defraying the expense of making inflammable gas (hydrogen), the
materials of which were expensive: one thousand pounds of iron filings
and four hundred ninety-eight pounds of sulphuric acid were consumed to
fill a globular bag of varnished silk, which, for the first time, was
designated a ballon, or balloon, as we call it, meaning a great ball.
The filling commenced on August 23d, in the Place des Victoires.
Bulletins were published daily of its progress, but, as the crowd was
found to be immense, it was moved on the night of the 26th to the
Champ-de-Mars, a distance of two miles. It was done secretly and in the
dark, to avoid a mob.
A description by an eye-witness is as follows: "No more wonderful scene
could be imagined than the balloon being thus conveyed, preceded by
lighted torches, surrounded by a _cortege_, and escorted by a
detachment of foot and horse-guards; the nocturnal march, the form and
capacity of the body carried with so much precaution; the silence that
reigned, the unseasonable hour, all tended to give a singularity and
mystery truly imposing to all those who were unacquainted with the
cause. The cab-drivers on the road were so astonished that they were
impelled to stop their carriages, and to kneel humbly, hat in hand,
while the procession was passing."
In the morning the Champ-de-Mars was lined with troops, every house to
its very top, and every avenue, was crowded with anxious spectators. The
discharge of a cannon at 5 P.M. was the signal for ascent, and the globe
rose, to the great surprise of the spectators, to a height of three
thousand one hundred twenty-three feet in two minutes, where it entered
the clouds. The heavy rain which descended as it rose did not impede,
and tended to increase, surprise. The idea that a body leaving the earth
was travelling in space was so sublime, and appeared to differ so
greatly from ordinary laws, that all the spectators were overwhelmed
with enthusiasm. The satisfaction was so great that ladies in the
greatest fashions allowed themselves to be drenched with rain, to avoid
losing sight of the globe for an instant.
The balloon, after remaining in the atmosphere three-quarters of an
hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, a village fifteen miles from the
Champ-de-Mars. The descent was imputed to a tear in the silk.
The effect on the inhabitants of this village well illustrates that the
human character with an unawakened intellect is the same in all
countries and ages:
"For on first sight it is supposed by many to have come from another
world; many fly; others, more sensible, think it a monstrous bird. After
it has alighted, there is yet motion in it from the gas it still
contains. A small crowd gains courage from numbers, and for an hour
approaches by gradual steps, hoping meanwhile the monster will take
flight. At length one bolder than the rest takes his gun, stalks
carefully to within shot, fires, witnesses the monster shrink, gives a
shout of triumph, and the crowd rushes in with flails and pitchforks.
One tears what he thinks to be the skin, and causes a poisonous stench;
again all retire. Shame, no doubt, now urges them on, and they tie the
cause of alarm to a horse's tail, who gallops across the country,
tearing it to shreds."
A similar tale has lately been told me as having occurred in Persia,
where a fire-balloon was let off by some French visitors to the Shah's
palace at Teheran, when it alighted. No less than three shots were fired
at it when on the ground, before anyone would venture nearer.
It is no wonder, then, that the paternal government of France deemed it
necessary to publish the following "_avertissement_" to the public:
"INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ASCENT OF BALLOONS, OR GLOBES, IN THE
AIR
"PARIS, August 27, 1783.
"The one in question has been raised in Paris this said day,
August 27, 1783, at 5 P.M., in the Champ-de-Mars.
"A discovery has been made, which the Government deems it
right to make known, so that alarm be not occasioned to the
people.
"On calculating the different weights of inflammable and
common air, it has been found that a balloon filled with
inflammable air will rise toward heaven till it is in
equilibrium with the surrounding air; which may not happen
till it has attained a great height.
"The first experiment was made at Annonay, in Vivarais, by
Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors. A globe formed of canvas
and paper, 105 feet in circumference, filled with
inflammable air, reached an incalculated height.
"The same experiment has just been renewed at Paris (August
27th, 5 P.M.), in presence of a great crowd. A globe of
taffeta, covered with elastic gum, thirty-six feet in
circumference, has risen from the Champ-de-Mars, and been
lost to view in the clouds, being borne in a northeasterly
direction; one cannot foresee where it will descend.
"It is proposed to repeat these experiments on a larger
scale. Any one who shall see in the sky such a globe (which
resembles the moon in shadow) should be aware that, far from
being an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of
taffeta or light canvas, covered with paper, that cannot
possibly cause any harm, and which will some day prove
serviceable to the wants of society.
"Read and approved, September 3, 1783.
"DE SAUVIGNY.
"Permission for printing. LENOIR."
Balloons made of paper and goldbeater's-skin were now sent up by
amateurs from all places which this intelligence reached; and in
September another important step was made, an account of which, and of
the ascents which followed during the next two years, I take from the
quaint but graphic _History of Aerostation_, by Tiberius Cavallo.
Tiberius Cavallo was an electrician and natural philosopher, born at
Naples, 1749. He came to England in 1771, where he devoted his time to
science and literature till his death, in 1809.
On September 19, 1783, the King, Queen,[31] the court, and innumerable
people of every rank and age assembled at Versailles, Jacques
Montgolfier being present to explain every particular. About one o'clock
the fire was lighted, in consequence of which the machine began to
swell, acquired a convex form, soon stretched itself on every side, and
in eleven minutes' time, the cords being cut, it ascended, together with
a wicker cage, which was fastened to it by a rope. In this cage they had
put a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were the first animals that ever
ascended into the atmosphere with an aerostatic machine. When the
machine went up, its power of ascension or levity was six hundred
ninety-six pounds, allowing for the cage and animals.
The machine raised itself to the height of about one thousand four
hundred forty feet; and being carried by the wind, it fell gradually in
the wood of Vaucresson, at the distance of ten thousand two hundred feet
from Versailles, after remaining in the atmosphere only eight minutes.
Two game-keepers, who were accidentally in the wood, saw the machine
fall very gently, so that it just bent the branches of the trees upon
which it alighted. The long rope to which the cage was fastened,
striking against the wood, was broken, and the cage came to the ground
without hurting in the least the animals that were in it, so that the
sheep was even found feeding. The cock, indeed, had its right wing
somewhat hurt; but this was the consequence of a kick it had received
from the sheep, at least half an hour before, in presence of at least
ten witnesses.
It has been sufficiently demonstrated by experiments that little or no
danger is to be apprehended by a man who ascends with such an aerostatic
machine. The steadiness of the aerostat while in the air, its gradual
and gentle descent, the safety of the animals that were sent up with it
in the last-mentioned experiment, and every other observation that could
be deduced from all the experiments hitherto made in this new field of
inquiry seem more than sufficient to expel any fear for such an
enterprise; but as no man had yet ventured in it, and as most of the
attempts at flying, or of ascending into the atmosphere, on the most
plausible schemes, had from time immemorial destroyed the reputation or
the lives of the adventurers, we may easily imagine and forgive the
hesitation that men might express, of going up with one of those
machines: and history will probably record, to the remotest posterity,
the name of M. Pilatre de Rozier, who had the courage of first venturing
to ascend with a machine, which in a few years hence the most timid
woman will perhaps not hesitate to trust herself to.
The King, aware of the difficulties, ordered that two men under sentence
of death should be sent up; but Pilatre de Rozier was indignant, saying,
"_Eh quoi! de vils criminels auraient les premiers la gloire de s'elever
dans les airs! Non, non cela ne sera point!_" ("What! Vile criminals to
have the glory of the first aerial ascension! No, not on any account!")
He stirs up the city in his behalf, and the King at length yields to the
earnest entreaties of the Marquis d'Arlandes, who said that he would
accompany him.