ther
sources of information.

It was arranged that our party should take passage on board one of the
American lake steamers at a little port on the Welland Canal. We were
disguised as immigrants to the west; our arms being shipped as mining
tools; and when clear of the canal, we were to rise upon the crew, and
make our way to Sandusky. As the Michigan was anchored close to the main
channel of the harbor, and we had provided ourselves with grapnels, it
was believed that she could be carried by surprise. We had sent off our
last "Personal" to the New York Herald, informing our friends at
Johnson's Island "that the carriage would be at the door on or about the
tenth;" our party had collected at the little port on the canal waiting
for the steamer then nearly due, when a proclamation was issued by the
Governor General, which fell among us like a thunderbolt. It was
announced in this proclamation, that it had come to the knowledge of the
Government that a hostile expedition was about to embark from the Canada
shores, and the infliction of divers pains and penalties was threatened
against all concerned in the violation of the neutrality laws. What was
even more fatal to our hopes, we learned that His Excellency had
notified the United States Government of our contemplated expedition.

Our good friend sojourning at Sandusky abandoned his duck shooting in
haste, (for the news sped across the frontier,) bringing intelligence
that the garrison at Johnson's Island had been increased, and such other
measures adopted as to render our success impossible. I called a council
of the senior officers, who unanimously recommended that the attempt be
abandoned; and so ended all our hopes. We learned, from what was
believed by some to be a reliable source, that the informant against us
was the manager, alluded to above, who betrayed us at the last moment.

There was a possibility of a successful issue to this enterprise, but
not a probability. The American Consul at Halifax possessed intelligence
and zeal; and he could easily have traced our course, by means of a
detective, up to the very point of our departure on the Welland Canal.
It is quite probable, indeed, that we were closely watched through the
whole route, for immediately after the proclamation was issued, two or
three detectives, no longer affecting disguise, dogged my footsteps for
several days, with the intention I suspected of carrying me "vi et
armis" across the frontier. But