408 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



their services, under penalty of being deprived of the allowance of 

 provisions which they would otherwise receive, and of all other bene- 

 fits, for such time as he might decide. The Seignior was to have the 

 power of proceeding as a magistrate against any of the present number 

 or of later accessions who should be guilty of "excessive refractoriness." 1 



And, indeed, some of the Loyalists at Machiche were not amiable 

 people: Gugy was already finding it difficult to please them, and 

 denounced as frivolous the complaint of one Lanan that the site se- 

 lected was a "drowned bog without water." By October 8 the Seig- 

 nior had a dozen houses under way, each eighteen by forty feet in 

 dimensions. He estimated that they would accommodate three 

 hundred troopers, but not so many members of the Loyalist families. 

 By making use of corvées drawn from five parishes he was able to 

 complete the structures in a month's time, when they were inspected 

 by Captain William Twiss of the Engineers, who reported that they 

 would commodiously house two hundred and forty women and children 

 for whom bedding should be supplied. Twiss also suggested that if 

 additional buildings were desired, the timber for them could be got 

 out during the winter. Haldimand replied to these recommendations 

 that he was ordering two hundred beds sent to Three Rivers, thence 

 to be transported to Machiche, together with a supply of household 

 utensils, that refugees were coming in daily of whom, he was apprised, 

 one hundred and eleven women and children were expected from 

 Niagara, and that he was looking for others by way of Lake Champlain. 

 He was obliged, therefore, he wrote, to ask Gugy to build more houses 

 as soon as the season would permit. Accordingly, the Seignior 

 decided to erect six additional houses, besides a small structure for 

 a school, since a Mr. (Josiah) Cass had just been elected school- 

 master. By this time some of the families were moving into their 

 houses; but many others were forced to remain with the "habitants" 

 until their bedding should arrive. 2 



To prevent the Loyalists from coming faster than Mr. Gugy 

 could provide for them Haldimand wrote, November 30, to Lieutenant 

 Colonel Carleton at Montreal to find places in that vicinity for a 

 party whose arrival the latter was looking for, and directed that its 

 members be supplied with such articles as they might require, includ- 

 ing allowances of wood. However, we know that the first complement 

 of houses at Machiche had not been filled to their capacity at this time; 

 for a census of December 2, showing the number of refugees lodged 

 there, gives the total as one hundred and fifty-nine, of whom thirty- 



1 Haldimand Papers, B. 164, pp. 3-5; B. 54, p. 39; B. 62, pp. 237, 238." 



2 Ibid., B. 164, pp. 3, 6, 7, 8-10, 14; B. 154, p. 106; B. 62, p. 300; B. 164, pp. 16-19; 

 B. 62, p. 301. 



