[97] There is an interesting account of the incident at the Cedars in Stone’s _Life of Brant_ (1838 ed.), vol. i, p. 153, &c. Stone says that Forster had with him one company of regulars and nearly 600 Indians, led by Joseph Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chief. But in spite of the note to p. 151 there seems no doubt that Brant, who had gone to England on a visit in the previous autumn, did not start on his return voyage till late in May or June, and did not arrive at New York till July, long after the event at the Cedars. See Colonel Cruikshank’s paper on ‘Joseph Brant in the American Revolution’, April, 1897, _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, vol. v, pp. 243, &c., Colonel Cruikshank says that Brant sailed from Falmouth early in June, 1776, and reached New York on July 29, where he fought under Howe. Probably the affair of the Cedars was confounded with the fighting at St. John’s and the attack on Montreal when Ethan Allen was taken prisoner in 1775. Brant seems to have been present in these actions. [98] See the letter of Ebenezer Sullivan abstracted in the 1890 _Report on Canadian Archives, State Papers_, p. 78. [99] Ibid. p. 74. [100] _Annual Register_ for 1777, p. 2. [101] See Carleton’s letter to Germain of September 28, 1776, quoting Germain’s of June 21, 1776. Shortt and Doughty, pp. 459-60. [102] The letter is quoted in extenso at pp. 129-32 of the sixth volume of Kingsford’s _History of Canada_. [103] _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii, 1882 ed., chap. xii, p. 447. [104] Clinton was named to act instead of Sir William Howe, in the event of his succeeding Howe in command of the army; this contingency happened, and he, and not Howe, acted as commissioner. Under the Act any three of the five commissioners were empowered to treat with the Americans. [105] Howe was a pronounced Whig. Burgoyne was more or less neutral until his later years, when he threw in his lot with Fox and his friends. Clinton belonged to a Whig family, but seems to have been a supporter of the Ministry; Cornwallis had voted with Lord Camden against taxing the colonists. [106] _Influence of Sea Power on History_, chap. ix, pp. 342-3. [107] See above, pp. 90-1. [108] It is given in Lord E. Fitzmaurice’s _Life of Lord Shelburne_. [109] p. 20.