George Canning Hill

“ The wild animals that peopled this awful solitude, were unused to the footfall of man, and had never learned to flee from the intrusion of his presence. Beavers and other wild game frequented the coverts and the glens, sharing the gloom and the silence with none but those who were made after their own kind.
While they rested at the foot of this mountain, Arnold found that their provisions were coming short, and sent back a party of ninety for a new supply. ”

“ The leaves in the forest were changing rapidly, furnishing the most gorgeous colorings on which the eye could desire to rest. The waters in the ponds they came to were calm and unruffled, and in the placid bosom of each the spacious dome of the sky was perfectly reflected. And the stained leaves of Autumn scattered themselves over the surface of the ponds as they fell, forming a beautiful mosaic pavement around their borders which heightened indescribably their sequestered beauty. ”

“ Arnold circulated copies of this paper with great judiciousness, and found that it gained him friends wherever it went. No man ever went away from a place leaving so many and such strong admirers behind him. He paid promptly for all he took, and received the ready and willing cooperation of the population in return.
Taken all together, this is one of the most romantic and remarkable expeditions on record. For thirty-two days the men were in a trackless wilderness, with no guides, and meeting no face of human settlers along the whole of that weary route. ”

“ Arnold sent back the flour and cattle by some Indians and Canadians, and the supply arrived just in time to save the remainder of the little army from total annihilation. They were in a truly lamentable condition, suffering for want of needful food. They had already butchered their last ox, and eaten him; all their boats were destroyed, together with the provisions they contained; the men even dug and clawed into the sandy beach, like animals, and tore out such roots as they could discover there ”

“ But Washington never looked upon hitn with favor again, and Enos saw it; he therefore left the army at the earliest opportunity that offered. As Arnold pressed forward with a small detachment of sixty men under Capt. Hanchet, intending to reach the settlements as soon as he could and send back provisions, the weather suddenly grew colder, and snow began to fall in large quantities, chilling them through. While they were dragging and pushing their boats through the water, ice was forming in the river, and in all the ponds and marshes in which the Dead River took its rise. ”

“ There are mountains all around Lake Megantic, which is itself a body of water thirteen miles in length and about three in breadth. On the eastern shore Arnold formed his camp. The very next morning he ordered fifty-five men, under command of Capt. Hanchet, to follow the lake along its shore, while he took thirteen men, together with Lieuts. Church and Steele, with five bateaux and a birch canoe, and hastened on down the Lake and Chaudiere to the French settlements. He was desirous of obtaining provisions and sending them back to the suffering army with all despatch. ”

“ They passed around seventeen different falls in this region; and on one of the bleakest and most blustering of late Autumn days, with the snow lying two inches deep on the ground, they came to the Highlands to which the streams of New England and Canada both trace their origin, and from which they both flow in opposite directions to empty themselves at last into the Atlantic. From the Highlands they had to drag their bateaux four long miles more to a little stream that took them to Lake Megantic, the source of the Chaudiere River. ”

“ As before related, Arnold pushed forward a party of half a dozen men to explore in the region of Lake Megantic, and collect what intelligence they could from the Indians who were known to be out on their annual autumn hunt in that vicinity; and another party of the same number was sent on to explore the courses, currents, and distances of Dead river, which emptied into the Kennebec from the westward. Then the army itself started. ”

“ The Committee from Congress having conferred a long time with Washington on the subject, it was at last determined to send a military force into Canada by way of the Kennebec river, in Maine. Thus the two forces would finally come together before Quebec, and be able to operate to advantage against this greatest strong-hold of the enemy. The next question was, who should command this expedition? It lay in Washington's power to answer that question, and he was not long in making up his mind. ”

“ It is said Arnold run up the American flag to the peak of his tent while here encamped; and it is solely on account of this slight incident that the little settlement since built up on the spot goes by the name of the "Flag-Staff." There is like-wise another story connected with this same mountain, which deserves mention as well. It is a pleasant tradition that has become smoky from being told so many times in all the old chimney-corners of the neighborhood. ”

“ Alternately by water and land they passed on, now launching their boats on the ponds, and now dragging all after them from one portage to another. Arnold directed the carpenters to build a block house at the second portage, within which were placed such as were sick and otherwise unable to withstand the hardships of the journey. He likewise ordered a second house of this description to be erected on the banks of the Kennebec river, for the purpose of storing what provisions might be sent up for the army from Norridgewock. ”

“ If they got on, they knew it must be done only by a resolution and perseverance such as few men, and never any ordinary men, are known to possess. And then the thought that winter was approaching so fast was quite enough to appal almost any, even stouter-hearted than they. ”