th a small band of refugees. {120} Among
these were two French officers, named Hindenlang and Touvrey, who had
been inveigled into joining the expedition. Hindenlang, who afterwards
paid for his folly with his life, has left an interesting account of
what happened. He and Touvrey joined Nelson at St Albans, on the west
side of Lake Champlain. With two hundred and fifty muskets, which had
been placed in a boat by an American sympathizer, they dropped down the
river to the Canadian border. There were five in the party--Nelson and
the two French officers, the guide, and the boatman. Nelson had given
Hindenlang to understand that the habitants had risen and that he would
be greeted at the Canadian border by a large force of enthusiastic
recruits. In this, however, he was disappointed. 'There was not a
single man to receive the famous President of the _Provisional
Government_; and it was only after a full hour's search, and much
trouble, [that] the guide returned with five or six men to land the
arms.' On the morning of November 4 the party arrived at Napierville.
Here Hindenlang found Dr Cote already at the head of two or three
hundred men. A crowd speedily gathered, and Robert Nelson was
proclaimed 'President of the Republic of {121} Lower Canada.'
Hindenlang and Touvrey were presented to the crowd; and to his great
astonishment Hindenlang was informed that his rank in the rebel force
was that of brigadier-general.

The first two or three days were spent in hastening the arrival of
reinforcements and in gathering arms. By the 7th Nelson had collected
a force of about twenty-five hundred men, whom Hindenlang told off in
companies and divisions. Most of the rebels were armed with pitchforks
and pikes. An attempt had been made two days earlier, on a Sunday, to
obtain arms, ammunition, and stores from the houses of the Indians of
Caughnawaga while they were at church; but a squaw in search of her cow
had discovered the raiders and had given the alarm, with the result
that the Indians, seizing muskets and tomahawks, had repelled the
attack and taken seventy prisoners.

On November 5 Nelson sent Cote with a force of four or five hundred men
south to Rouse's Point, on the boundary-line, to secure more arms and
ammunition from the American sympathizers. On his way south Cote
encountered a picket of a company of loyalist volunteers stationed at
Lacolle, and drove it {122} in. On his return journey, however, he met