Canada -- Social life and customs; Ontario -- Description and travel
It is just as well for the present generation to know this jingle,
absurd as it may be. There were many verses in it, but all much to the
same tenor, and while they pleased Canadians who sang the song, they
were certainly harmless, and to-day we can afford to laugh at them. It
is so very ridiculous to think of our handful of men going over to the
United States and “pulling their dwellings down.” Our defence at home
was quite another matter, but we are proud of it nevertheless. Human
nature is much the same here as elsewhere, and was also in 1812-15.
Thus would the author illustrate how he applies the inference; there
were over a half of the inhabitants who came directly from the British
Isles, or were descended from those who came. The greater part of the
settlers were poor. Generally the U. E. Loyalists and their descendants
were fairly well-to-do. If not well-to-do they were far better off than
the others. Consequently some mean-spirited among the settlers from
Britain or their descendants, who were so poor, would depreciate the U.
E. Loyalists if possible. Roger Conant said that one envious neighbor
set the Indians upon him, during a lull in the war, while he was at
home, by telling them he was a Yankee, and that they might rob him if
they chose. For the object of plunder, they came upon him because he had
an abundance of stock, the best in the land, as well as goods of various
sorts for Indian fur trading, while his money, as we have seen, was
safely banked in a pine log in Scarborough. One night there came to his
home in Darlington, in the year 1812, a single Indian who asked to rest
before the open fire for the night. Permission was given, and he
squatted before the blazing wood fire of logs. On watching him closely,
a knife was seen to be up his sleeve of buckskin, but not a word was
spoken of the discovery. Shortly another Indian came in and squatted
beside the first on the floor, and in utter silence. Now came a third
Indian, who, in his turn, crouched with the two former ones.
No doubt now remained in Roger Conant’s mind as to their purpose, and he
roused himself to the occasion. They meant robbery, and murder, if
necessary, to accomplish it. An axe at hand being always ready, he
seized it, and drew back to the rifle hanging upon the wall, never
absent therefrom unless in actual use. His family he sent out to the
nearest neighbors, a mile away, along the lake shore.
“None of you stir. If you do, I’ll kill the first one who gets up. Stay
just where you are until daylight.”
And now a squaw came in and sat beside the three crouching bucks, and
cried softly. Very generally Indian squaws’ voices are soft, and
naturally their crying would be soft, as was this squaw’s. Entreating
with her crying, she began to beg for the release of the Indians,
assuring the vigilant custodian “that they no longer meditated injury,
nor theft, but would go away if they could be released.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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