12 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Fraser appeared on the twentieth, bringing with him a copy of the 

 articles of the convention, or surrender, which had occurred three days 

 before. It is said that on the night before the convention was signed, 

 a large number of the remaining provincials, preferring the risks of 

 flight to the conditions of surrender, struck out through the woods 

 for the Quebec country.* Colonel Peters throws more light on the flight 

 of the loyalists at this time by declaring in his memorial to Haldimand 

 that he conducted about 117 privates into Canada in the fall of 1777. 

 He further states that he left Burgoyne's camp on October 16, "having 

 that unfortunate General's order, signed by General Philips, to make 

 his escape into Canada, which he had the good fortune to effect, 

 with the greatest difficulty, having his son and a few others, with 

 him." t 



That flight involved the fugitive in grave risks is illustrated by 

 the experience of Alexander White of Tryon County, who had the 

 misfortune to fall into the hands of the enemy and to suffer twelve 

 months imprisonment at Albany before he could obtain his discharge. 

 He then betook himself to New York City, whence, with the approach 

 of the evacuation, he secured passage to Quebec in the summer of 1783, t 

 thus arriving in Canada six years after his attempted escape. 



A large number of Burgoyne's Tory recruits, who nine or ten years 

 later told something of their story to the British Commissioners of 

 loyalist claims in Canada, do not particularize in regard to the time of 

 their escape, contenting themselves with the indefinite statement that 

 they came to Canada "in the fall of 1777," or "after Burgoyne's defeat," 

 or "at the convention."* Others are more explicit, explaining that they 

 were "taken at Saratoga," or "were in the convention," or "had under 

 the convention Veave to go to Canada."' Still others say that they 

 came to Canada "after the convention.'" A fraction were, to be sure, 

 taken prisoner in the course of the campaign, languished in confinement 

 for a longer or shorter time, and were thus prevented from getting to 

 the desired haven along with the greater number of their loyalist 

 comrades. ' Not a few spent more or less of their time in the States for 

 several years after the convention, before settling permanently in their 

 newly adopted country. As late as 1786, it appears that "numbers of 



♦Kirigsford, History of Canada, VI., 434. 



tHaldimand Papers, B. 215, p. 211. 



JSecond Report, Bureau of Archives, Ont., Pt. II., 1051. 



*Ibid., Pt. I, 86, 328, 330, 336, 337, 338, 344, 345, 449, 451, 457, 466, 474, 483; 

 Pt. II, 1002, 1006, 1084, 1267, 1271. 



* Il)id, Pt. II, 927-8, 949, 953. 



«Ibid., Pt. I, 386, 421, 445, 4.57, 466, 474, 483, 484; Pt, II., 940, 942, 

 943, 944. 



^Ibid., Pt. I, 329, 351. 



