I have the honor to report, that at a recent interview I had at Montreal with Lieut.-Governor Gore, it was judged expedient that his excellency should assume the command in the upper province. I regretted exceedingly that I could not, with propriety, detach troops in support of the spirited exertions whioh will be immediately made to place that country in a respectable state of defence. He has been supplied with four thousand muskets from the king's arsenal at Quebec, and with various military stores of which he stood in need: this leaves in my possession only seven thousand muskets for the use of the militia of this province, and to supply, as far as they will go, every other emergency. _Sir James Craig to Colonel Brock_. H.M.S. Horatio, Oct. 16, 1807. His majesty having been pleased to appoint me to the chief government of the British provinces in America, as well as to the command of his forces in these parts, I do myself the pleasure to announce to you my arrival in the river, to take these charges upon me. Lieut.-Colonel Baynes, the adjutant-general, and Major Thornton, my secretary and first aide-decamp, will deliver you this, and will inform you of the very miserable state of my health, which obliges me to write to Mr. Dunn, to entreat that he will permit my landing to be as private as possible. Of you I must make the same request. A salute may be proper, but I beg nothing more may be done: my object must be to get to the château as speedily and with as little fatigue as possible. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 18: Owing to the difficulty, after the lapse of above forty years, of obtaining the particulars of this event from any officer present, the preceding account may be slightly inaccurate notwithstanding our diligent inquiries, but we doubt not that it is substantially correct.] [Footnote 19: The 10th Royal Veteran Battalion arrived in Canada the year following.] [Footnote 20: Afterwards Major-General Barnard Foord Bowes, slain on the 27th June, 1812, while leading the troops to the assault of the forts of Salamanca. Monuments in St. Paul's, to the memory of Major-General Bowes and of Sir Isaac Brock, were voted in the House of Commons on the same day, 20th July, 1813.] [Footnote 21: On the passage of the 100th to Quebec, in 1805, one of the transports was wrecked on the 21st October, on the coast of Newfoundland; and Major Bertram, three captains, six lieutenants, the assistant-surgeon, and about 260 men of the regiment, miserably perished.] CHAPTER III. _Brigadier Brock to his Brothers_. MONTREAL, July 20, 1808. I have written to all of you since the navigation opened, and the only letters I have received from any of the family for several months came from Irving, who, to do him justice, is infinitely the most attentive and regular correspondent among you.