George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[195] with an enemy's country and uncertainty

Chap. LIII.} 1775. Oct.

ahead, officers and men, inspired with the love of liberty and their country, pushed on with invincible fortitude.

The foaming Chaudiere hurries swiftly down its rocky channel. Too eager to descend it quickly, the adventurers had three of their boats overset in the whirls of the stream; losing ammunition and precious stores, which they had brought along with so much toil.

The first day of November was bright and warm,

Nov.

like the weather of New England. ‘I passed a number of soldiers who had no provisions, and some that were sick and had no power to help them,’ writes one of the party. At last, on the second of that month, French Canadians came up with two horses, driving before them five oxen; at which the party fired a salute for joy, and laughed with frantic delight. On the fourth, about an hour before noon, they descried a house at Sertigan, twenty five leagues from Quebec, near the fork of the Chaudiere and the De Loup. It was the first they had seen for thirty one days; and never could the view of rich cultivated fields or of flourishing cities awaken such ecstasy of gladness as this rude hovel on the edge of the wilderness. They did not forget their disabled fellow soldiers: McLeland was brought down to the comfortable shelter, though he breathed his farewell to the world the day after his arrival.

The party followed the winding of the river to the parish of St. Mary, straggling through a flat and rich country, which had for its ornament many low bright whitewashed houses, the comfortable abodes of