102 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



had ascended the Chateauguay river. The barracks were destroyed 

 and he returned to Coteau on February 24. Not less than ninety 

 men were lost through desertion on this expedition, of whom fifty-one 

 belonged to the 103rd and twenty to the Canadian Fencibles. This 

 was angrily attributed by General de Rottenburg, who had again 

 assumed command at Montreal, to "the want of activity and ex- 

 ertion" on the part of their officers as the dragoons and Indians 

 might have been employed to prevent desertion. Prévost indignantly 

 remarked that "unfortunately several of the corps last sent to this 

 country have brought with them a very bad description of men — 

 men who have long lost sight of every thing that is honest and honour- 

 able. Convicts taken from the hulks to be made soldiers, but who 

 answer no other purpose than that of bringing the profession into 

 discredit and disrespect. The 103rd Regt. come most under that 

 description." 1 



1 De Rottenburg to Brenton, Mch. 2, 1814; Prévost to Bathurst, Mch. 10 and 

 12; Hough, History of St. Lawrence County, N.Y., p. 323. 



