Fenianism at first did not attract much attention. In 1865 rumors continually reached us of head centres, drillings, armings, massings, and other notes of warlike preparations among United States Fenians. Our Government had spies promptly among them. Clever fellows they were, who entered the lodges and wormed out all their secrets. As the days went by and the rumors increased, gathering force by repetition and transmission, our people began to feel alarmed. There were very few sympathizers in Canada, but, preposterous as it may seem, there were some, and certain of these, more valiant and outspoken than others, talked of what they would do when the Fenians did come. Con. Lyons, of Oshawa, a respectable man, working for his livelihood, made no secret of saying he had chosen my father’s homestead farm as his share in the prospective division of property taken by the Fenian invaders. Timorous people became very nervous, and “the Fenians” were the topic of the day. Neighbors gathered nightly in each other’s houses, and debated over the prospects, conjecturing and planning what they would do with their horses and stock when the invaders landed. To run them off into the forests seemed to be the general solution of that difficulty met in advance by those who feared even the very next breeze from the south might bring in a shipload of Fenians from the United States to occupy this part of Ontario. Persons residing near the shore of Lake Ontario began to watch for strange craft. The excitement was too tense to be kept up long. Something must occur to quiet it down. On the hot misty evening of June 26th, 1865, someone about Port Oshawa saw the spars of a ship just [Illustration: CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8. REFUGEES FROZEN IN AT OSWEGO, N.Y. BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO] out from the shore, as if of a vessel at anchor. Anon the ship’s yawl could be faintly descried making for the shore. The evening was very still, and through the mist the ear helped the eye, as it were, as the sound of oars in the row-locks could be distinctly heard. This regular “swish” and “thud” of rowers in unison came to startled ears. It was enough. A young man got a horse and rode for sweet life to Oshawa, three miles away, calling aloud as he rode, “They have landed! they have landed!” Yet not all who had previously gathered at each other’s houses were within hearing of the dreadful tidings of the landing. One Cumberland man went to his neighbor’s door at midnight, knocked and called out, “John, the Fenians have a’ com’d!” In Oshawa town the consternation was too great and genuine to be ludicrous, at least just then. Not a few persons loaded waggons with all they could put on them, and climbing to the top of the furniture and bedding drove away northward. “No Fenians should catch us!”