Hugh Eayrs - Sir Isaac Brock

After a short stay at Quebec, Brock and his men began their journey to York, the small but important town that was later to become the great city of Toronto. The 49th journeyed by water, for there were no trains. A schooner took the men up to Montreal, where, after resting, they took boats up the St. Lawrence. Picture what it meant to brave the wildness and storm of our great river, to these voyagers a waterway quite unknown, in small and open boats. They had a new experience in portaging their boats where the rapids were too strong for them. They plied their oars through the exquisite loveliness of the Thousand Islands, and Brock, remembering the fairyland of Guernsey, must have marvelled at this country which, in one place, had a thousand islands, some of them almost as big as Sark. Eventually the 49th arrived at Kingston, the second stage. They made the rest of the journey over Lake Ontario in another swiftly sailing schooner.

By the time the whole trip was completed Brock had been afforded much food for thought. He saw a country whose resources were barely touched. Where we now have thriving communities, he saw settlements where the people might be counted by handfuls. In the long journey up the St. Lawrence the abundance of fish and game and the vast sources of wealth contained in the land alone must have amazed him. He came from a country across which the stage coach could travel in two or three days. But his journey across but a section of Canada took him weeks. In England the lakes were not a twentieth of the size of the one upon which York stood. The meadows and lanes of England were a far cry from the densely timbered stretches of Canada. The contrast between his country and ours is sharp enough to-day. It must have been infinitely more so when Brock made his first Canadian journey.

It was not long after the pardoning of Carr that Brock had again to face a similar trouble. Part of his men had gone on to Fort George, while the others remained with him at York. Brock’s kind treatment of Carr had had a salutary effect upon most of the regiment, but there were still a few malcontents. The next summer six of these, at the instigation of a corporal in another regiment stationed near, deserted, and in a military batteau – a big flat-bottomed boat, forty feet in length – which they had stolen, started for Niagara. Brock, the man of action, thought quickly. He took his servant, Dobson, and manning two boats, started in pursuit. It was midnight and Lake Ontario was to Brock an unknown quantity, but the boy who had played with the English Channel in all its moods was unafraid. After a hard row the pursuers reached Fort George in the morning, and search parties were organized. The deserters were secured and made prisoners at Fort George. Brock was as stern this time as he had been kind before, and his prompt action and personal pursuit put an end to desertions when he himself was commanding the regiment. It is said that the commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General Hunter, who was then at York, was very much annoyed with Brock for risking his life by going in person to seek the deserters and read him a severe lecture on his conduct.

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