And black-eyed papooses, rushed from Labrador, Gaspe,
Restigouche, Baie des Chaleurs, and pitched their tents on a strip of land
at Levi, hence called Indian Cove, the city itself being closed to the
grim monarchs of the woods, reputed ugly customers when in their cups. A
special envoy, however, was sent to the Lorette Indians on similar
occasions. The Indians settled on Canadian soil were distinguished for
their loyalty to England, who has ever treated them more mercifully than
did "Uncle Sam."
The war between England and the United States in 1812 brought the Lorette
braves again to the front, and the future hero of Chateauguay, Col. De
Salaberry, was sent to enlist them. Col. De Salaberry attended in person
on the tribe, at Indian Lorette. A grand pow-wow had been convoked. The
sons of the forest eagerly sent in their names and got in readiness when
the Colonel returned a few days later to inform them that the Government
had decided to retain them as a reserve in the event of Quebec being
attacked from the Kennebec.
Notwithstanding this announcement, six Hurons (among whom were Joseph and
Stanislas Vincent) claimed with loud cries the right to accompany the
Canadian Voltigeurs, commanded by the Colonel.
At Chateauguay, where 300 Canadians so gloriously repelled 7,000 invaders,
the brothers Vincent swam across the river to capture and make prisoners,
the flying Yankees.
These swarthy warriors had but a faint idea of what military discipline
meant, and thinking that, the battle being over, they could return to
Lorette, left accordingly. This was a flagrant case of desertion. Nothing
short of the brave Colonel's earnest entreaties, sufficed to procure a
pardon for the redskins. A letter was written to Col. De Salaberry by his
father, late M.P. for the county, on this subject; it has been preserved.
The Hurons attended at Beauport at the unveiling of the monument of De
Salaberry on the 27th of June, 1880, and subscribed bountifully to the
building fund.
What with war medals, clothing, ammunition, fertile lands specially
reserved at Lorette, on the Restigouche, at Nouvelle, Isle Verte,
Caughnawaga, St. Regis, &c., the "untutored savage," shielded by a
beneficent legislation, watched over by zealous missionaries, was at times
an object of envy to his white brethren. Age or infirmity, seldom war,
tore him away from this vale of sorrow, to join the great Indian
"majority" in those happy hunting grounds promised to him by his Sachems.
The Hurons were ever ready to parade their paint, feathers, and tomahawks,
at the arrival of every new Governor at Quebec, and to assure Ononthio,
[319] of their undying attachment and unswerving loyalty to their great
father or august mother "who dwells on the other side of the Great Lake."
These traditions have descended even to the time when Ononthio was
merely a Lieutenant-Governor under Confederation.
