[Footnote 17: Sir Alexander Mackenzie who accomplished in 1793 what was
then the astonishing feat of crossing the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean and whose book, "Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence,
through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific
Oceans," first published in 1801, attracted general attention, including
even that of Napoleon Bonaparte.]

[Footnote 18: John Warren, the ancestor of the numerous family at Murray
Bay of that name.]

[Footnote 19: Warren, Nairne's neighbour, had been visiting Quebec
apparently for business reasons.]

[Footnote 20: See Appendix F., p. 286, for this Prayer of Colonel
Nairne.]

[Footnote 21: The inscription to be placed on Nairne's tomb was long a
subject of debate in the family. Two drafts remain at Murray Bay, both
copious in length, and neither like the inscription now to be found at
Mount Hermon Cemetery. (See p. 221.) In the taste of the time
inscriptions were expected to give a full account of the career of the
dead man. One of these inscriptions speaks of Nairne's "enjoying as a
reward of his services a gift of Land on the River St. Lawrence. He had
alike the merit and the happiness of converting a wild and uninhabited
desert into a flourishing colony of above 1000 inhabitants, who regarded
him as their Tender Friend and Patriarch. He died honoured with the
esteem of all who knew him." The other inscription mentions what,
otherwise, we should not have known, that Nairne received a wound on the
Plains of Abraham. It goes on in verse:

"Though 'gainst the Foe a dauntless Front he reared,
Ne'er from his lips was aught assuming heard;
Modest, though brave; though firm, in manners mild,
Strong in resolve, though guileless as a child;
To honor true, in probity correct;
To falsehood [stern] and urgent to detect;
To party strange, to calumny a foe;
The good Samaritan to sons of woe;
At a late hour he heard the fatal call,
Obeyed and died, wept and deplored by all."
]

CHAPTER VI

THOMAS NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY

His Education in Scotland.--His winning character.--He enters the
army.--Malcolm Fraser's counsels to a young soldier.--Thomas
Nairne's life at Gibraltar.--His desire to retire from the
army.--His return to Canada in 1810-11.--His life at Quebec.--His
summer at Murray Bay, 1811.--His resolve to remain in the
army.--Beginning of the War of 1