MEMOIR OF SIR THOMAS MAKDOUGALL BRISBANE. 595 
me round with irresistible force, and knocked me flat on the ground. I was 
so confused with the violence of the concussion, that I deemed it prudent to 
send for the officer next in command to be near me, and to take the command 
of the brigade in case of necessity. While in this state of confusion, I was 
shot through the left arm by a musket ball, when the blood flowing profusely 
from the wound immediately relieved my head, and restored me to my senses. 
This is perhaps a rare instance where a musket ball has proved beneficial to 
an individual, and even rendered him medical assistance when absolutely 
requisite.” 
At the abdication of Napoleon, and when Wellington broke up his army on 
the Garonne, after the battle of Toulouse, Sir THomMAs was ordered to take the 
command of a brigade and embark for North America. The embarkation took 
place at Bordeaux, on board line-of-battle ships, and he arrived at Quebec and 
proceeded to Montreal, where he did good service in covering the retreat of Sir 
George Prevost in the affair of Plattsburgh. This he accomplished, without loss 
of life, by the destruction of the bridge across the Dead Creek. On his assuming 
the command of the advance, Sir THomas found every possible atrocity com- 
mitted on both sides. The sentries were attacked and isolated individuals 
murdered. This mode of warfare, so opposite to what had characterized the 
Duke of Wellineton’s army, was speedily ended by Sir THomas intimating to the 
American commander, General M‘Comb, that the same system should be followed 
as in European wars. General M‘Comb returned a polite reply, and the toma- 
hawk and scalping knife were henceforth laid aside. 
The late Colonel Campbell, who accompanied Sir THomas from Bordeaux to 
Quebec, has left a memorandum of the voyage, so characteristic of the General, 
that it deserves quotation :—“ Being curious,” says the Colonel, ‘“‘in matters 
connected with the navigation of the ship, I occasionally begged to be shown 
the spot where we were supposed to be, by the officers required to keep 
reckonings, when I found that the difference of sixty or many more miles in 
longitude amongst them seemed to be looked upon as trifles; and the bounds 
or retrograde movements which some of them caused His Majesty’s ship to 
take over the ocean were quite amazing. I had, however, the pleasure of 
accompanying Sir Taomas on this voyage, and he was not a little amazed when 
I told him how gaily, as well as apparently heedlessly, they were all dashing 
across the Atlantic. 
“To a man they looked upon Sir THomas BrisBane’s attempts to keep a 
reckoning as truly absurd, and only laughed when they saw him taking lunars 
by means of an excellent repeating circle and other instruments, which it was 
very odd that a soldier-oficer should possess or know how to use; but from 
him I always knew within a mile or two our true place upon the globe. On 
approaching the banks of Newfoundland, as we were comforting ourselves as 
