Before, at, or about six weeks preceeding the 7th November abovesaid,
there was a strong report prevailed in [the] Garrison (which I am now
persuaded was not without foundation) that the said Ens. Johnstone,
being in company with some gentlemen in the fort, had breathed out
menaceing and malevolent expressions against me, threatening he would
use me ill.
Ens. Johnstone’s reasons for this extravagant Declaration I am yet a
stranger to, as it is conscious to myself I never did in word or deed
give him any just grounds of provocation. Notwithstanding this surmise,
I took no further notice of [it] than studying to evade his Company,
excepting behaveing with common civility on general terms, as I knew his
Character among the public to be of a turbulent & troublesome, meddling
[and] loquacious Disposition.
Upon the whole, I believe, it will not be attended with much Difficulty
to investigate sufficient evidences, who will attest to the Veracity of
the above, when they are legally called upon to declare their
Sentiments, Solemnly without the least partiality or mental reservation
in presence of any competent Tribunal, by which it will evidently appear
(to the Judicious) with other concurring Circumstances that the forcibly
breaking up of my house &c., together with the violent assault upon my
person as above specifyed, may be justly attributed to premeditated &
malicious intentions. Authentick witnesses to prove the last assertion
are Isaac Todd, Benjiman Roberts, late Lieut. in the 46th Regt.,
Benjiman Frobbisher, merchant, & William Maxwell, Commissary of
Provisions in this Fort.
N. B.: When Sergt. McMurray & Arthur Ross came into my house they found
Ens. Johnstone holding my servant by the hair of his head & pelting at
him with several knocks altennarly [alternately?] for attempting to
force him out of the house, which he got accomplished with the
assistance of Sergt. MacMurray & Arthur Ross.
N. B.: That in the month of March 1766, he [Johnson] threatened he would
break my head. No sooner [did] I put myself in a position of Defence,
but he desisted from his insolent menaces. Proof: Lieut. Allan Grant of
the 2d. Battn., Lieut. Varingon & Adjutant Biron [John Burrent], both of
the 1st. Battn. 60th Regt.
II
Concerning the Most Irregular Proceedings
[Illustration: Flags]
_Daniel Morison was so incensed by the events related in the preceding
narrative that he wrote out two versions, which, however, with the
exception of an occasional difference in wording are the same. Following
these events, from time to time he recorded some of the “irregular
proceedings” which transpired at the fort, largely as a result of the
actions of the irrepressible Ensign Johnson._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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