On my enlargement, I soon got acquainted with a number of gentlemen, who were friends to the United States, and the cause in which they were engaged. Some days after going on shore, I fell in company with a Mr. Jones, who happened at that time to be reading a letter sent by General Montgomery, while he lay before Quebec, to Gov. Carlton, and on concluding it said he hoped General Montgomery was in hell, and that all the rebels would soon be with him; to this I made a reply, words ensued, and then blows; he drew on me, but I parried his thrust with my cane, so that I only got a small wound on my knee: He then made a complaint and I was sent for by the General, who threatened to put me in confinement, if I did not find security; this I soon found, and bonds were given for me for two months: at the end of which, as they neglected renewing them and left me without parole or security, I hired an Indian guide, and on the ninth of Oct I quitted Quebec. After a fatiguing march through the woods, on the 20th of Nov. I arrived at Boston, where I was kindly received and politely treated by General Gates who supplied my wants and forwarded to me to his Excellency, General Washington; I, waited on him, was politely received and sent on to Congress, having some matters relating to Canada, worthy of their hearing. Had the love of my country no ways prompted me to act against the tyranny of Britain. I leave it to the world to judge whether I have not a right to revolt from under the dominion of such tyrants and exert every faculty God has given me to seek satisfaction for the ill usage I received than if I had ten thousand lives, and was sure to lose them all: I think should I not attempt to gain satisfaction I should deserve to be a slave the remainder of my life. FINIS [Illustration] NOTES [1] Almon's _Remembrancer_, 1779. [2] First edition, Philadelphia, 1779, and second edition, Danvers, Massachusetts, 1780; also printed in _Connecticut Gazette and Universal Intelligencer_, February 2, 1780. [3] _Virginia State Papers_, 1, 321. [4] _Dodge Genealogy_, page 137. _American Ancestry_, 6, 192. The sketch in _The Magazine of Western History_, 4, 282, contains many errors. [5] _Wayne County Records_, B. 9, 91. [6] If this date is correct it would appear that Dodge was in Detroit before he was brought there as a captive. [7] Manuscript, British Museum. [8] For a history of the Montour family see Egle's _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, 1, 118. John Montour was arrested and confined in Detroit in 1778. See _Michigan Historical Society Collections_, 9, 434. [9] _Michigan Historical Society Collections_, 9, 512. [10] _Fergus Historical Series_, number 31, page 62. See also number 33, pages 159, 182, 183, 209; also _Calendar of Virginia State Papers_, 1, 367.