After this melancholy affair Brock assumed {64} command at Fort George, and all complaints and desertions instantly ceased. He put into practice the more humane methods of treating the common soldier that he had learned in the school of Abercromby and Stewart. The men were allowed, under proper restrictions, to visit the town freely. It was no longer a crime to fish in fatigue dress, and even the sport of shooting the wild pigeons that were in such abundance was allowed, with the proviso that the men should provide their own powder and shot. Under Colonel Sheaffe's discipline the four black holes were always full, but now under a milder rule complaints were unknown. [Sidenote: Brock's report] The mutiny, however, had made such an impression on Colonel Brock that he sought a remedy for the evils that had occasioned it, and his ideas on the subject were embodied in a report which he subsequently sent to the Duke of York. During the long winter months of 1803-4 at Fort George he had the opportunity of visiting many of the new settlers in the country. He found that without any special merit, they had obtained large grants of land, although some of them had even taken part against England in the revolutionary war. Land at that time was of so little value that on condition of settling, any person, by paying a fee of sixpence an acre, could obtain a grant of two hundred acres. In order to improve the prospects of soldiers in Canada, Brock, in his report, recommended the establishment of a corps of veterans, who would by {65} long and faithful service be deserving of the most liberal protection and favour. The men, he thought, might be selected in the first instance from veteran corps already established, and afterwards they might be selected impartially from every regiment in the service. Every year men were discharged who could with propriety be recommended for this corps. Ten companies, each of sixty rank and file with the usual proportion of officers, might be distributed at St. Johns, Chambly, Kingston, York, Fort George and its dependencies, Amherstburg and St. Joseph. Colonel Brock gave a scale of the number of years each soldier should serve in the veteran battalion proportionate to his length of former service. On their discharge he suggested that the men should be located on a large tract of land on the river Credit (west of York) which had been purchased by Lieutenant-Governor Hunter from the Mississaga Indians. He also recommended that they should be furnished with implements of husbandry and rations for a short period. He concluded with these words:--"I have considered the subject only in a military point of view; the advantages arising from the introduction of a number of men into the country attached to government by ties of interest and gratitude and already acquainted with the use of arms, are too obvious in a political light to need any comment. It is highly gratifying to observe the comfortable