300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IV. 



direction. They sent Mr. Frobisher, who did not return till the month 

 of April. Soon after I was informed that the merchants were determined 

 to send off their goods in the spring with or without passports, upon 

 which I gave out a general order prohibiting the carrying of any coarse 

 goods out of the city, except such as were needed by the country-people." 



When forwarding the petition from the Montreal merchants, borne by 

 Frobisher, General Schuyler prudently took care to represent the situa- 

 tion in such a light as to effectually destroy all its chances of success. 



" Mr. Frobisher," he wrote to the president of Congress on the 20th of 

 February, 1776, "delivered to me a letter, signed by himself and several 

 others, containing the substances of the memorial he will present, and 

 requested the mediation of my good offices with Congress. I am very 

 apprehensive, sir, that if these people shall be permitted to go into the 

 Indian country they might, if unfriendly to our cause, be very prejudicial 

 to it, and the sending of such a quantity of provisions will strengthen the 

 enemy at Detroit and Niagara, for by whatever route they go it will be 

 seized by some one of the garrisons and appropriated to their own use. 

 Mr. Frobisher's letter urges the danger of their traders starving if a 

 supply of provisions was not sent up. That may be the case if they were 

 to remain there another year ; but the same letter observes that what is 

 sent away in the month of May seldom arrives in the trading country 

 before the winter sets in. If this be a fact, then they have now near a 

 twelve months' provision, and by sending up two or three canoes express 

 (navigated by persons we can depend upon), these traders may be brought 

 away, and their provisions will suffice at least until they can reach Detroit, 

 where they can be in no danger of starving." 



The British merchants of Montreal had already given decisive evidence 

 of their loyalty upon more than one occasion. It was in no respect 

 lessened by the arbitrary rule of the invaders. Accordingly we find 

 James Stanley Goddard, a very noted trader, accompanied by Richard 

 Walker, secretly leaving the town in March, 1776, and taking an active 

 part in assembling a body of Indians to open the communication with 

 the upper posts, which defeated the Americans at the Cedars in May. 



It was probably from the knowledge of their determined hostility, and 

 in the hope of conciliating them, that the recently appointed commis- 

 sioners of Congress in Canada, among whom Benjamin Franklin was the 

 ruling spirit, were then induced to reverse Wooster's policy. Shortly 

 after their arrival in the province they announced that they "had directed 

 the opening of the Indian trade and the granting of passports to all who 

 shall enter into certain engagements to do nothing in the upper country 

 prejudicial to the continental interests." 



