The
sons of the forest eagerly sent in their names and got in readiness when
the Colonel returned a few days later to inform them that the Government
had decided to retain them as a reserve in the event of Quebec being
attacked from the Kennebec.
Notwithstanding this announcement, six Hurons (among whom were Joseph and
Stanislas Vincent) claimed with loud cries the right to accompany the
Canadian Voltigeurs, commanded by the Colonel.
At Chateauguay, where 300 Canadians so gloriously repelled 7,000 invaders,
the brothers Vincent swam across the river to capture and make prisoners,
the flying Yankees.
These swarthy warriors had but a faint idea of what military discipline
meant, and thinking that, the battle being over, they could return to
Lorette, left accordingly. This was a flagrant case of desertion. Nothing
short of the brave Colonel's earnest entreaties, sufficed to procure a
pardon for the redskins. A letter was written to Col. De Salaberry by his
father, late M.P. for the county, on this subject; it has been preserved.
The Hurons attended at Beauport at the unveiling of the monument of De
Salaberry on the 27th of June, 1880, and subscribed bountifully to the
building fund.
What with war medals, clothing, ammunition, fertile lands specially
reserved at Lorette, on the Restigouche, at Nouvelle, Isle Verte,
Caughnawaga, St. Regis, &c., the "untutored savage," shielded by a
beneficent legislation, watched over by zealous missionaries, was at times
an object of envy to his white brethren.
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