His mind
was filled, as he himself says, with melancholy and dismal horror at the
prospect of seamen and soldiers, worn to skeletons by hunger, drawing
lots to decide who should die first amidst the "adamantine frosts" and
"mountains of snow" of bleak and barren Canada.

The Gulf and River St. Lawrence spell death to an incompetent sailor.
The fogs, the numerous shoals and islands, make skillful seamanship
necessary. It is a long journey from Boston to Quebec by water. For
three weeks, however, all went well. On the 22d of August, Walker was
out of sight of land in the Gulf where it is about seventy miles wide
above the Island of Anticosti. A strong east wind with thick fog is
dreaded in those waters even now, and on the evening of that day a storm
of this kind blew up. In the fog Walker lost his bearings. When in fact
he was near the north shore he thought he was not far from the south
shore. At half-past ten at night Paddon, the captain of the Edgar,
Walker's flagship, came to tell him that land was in sight. Walker
assumed that it was the south shore and gave a fatal order for the fleet
to turn and head northward, a change which turned them straight towards
cliffs and breakers. He then went to bed. Soon one of the military
officers rushed to his cabin and begged him to come on deck as the ships
were among breakers. Walker, who was an irascible man, resented the
intrusion and remained in bed. A second time the officer appeared and
said the fleet would be lost if the Admiral did not act. Why it was left
for a military rather than a naval officer to rouse the Admiral in such
a crisis we do not know. Perhaps the sailors were afraid of the great
man. Walker appeared on deck in dressing gown and slippers. The fog
had lifted, and in the moonlight there could be seen breaking surf to
leeward. A French pilot, captured in the Gulf, had taken pains to give
what he could of alarming information. He now declared that the ships
were off the north shore. Walker turned his own ship sharply and
succeeded in beating out into deep water and safety. For the fleet the
night was terrible. Some ships dropped anchor which held, for happily
the storm abated. Fog guns and lights as signals of distress availed
little to the ships in difficulty. Eight British transports laden with
troops and two ships carrying supplies were dashed to pieces on the
rocks. The shrieks of drowning men could be heard in the darkness. The
scene was the rocky Isle