I have now the honor to enclose for your excellency’s information the
report of that gentleman, from which you will observe that after the
closest scrutiny he was unable to find any evidence to substantiate
the allegations referred to.
Lord Lyons, &c.,
&c., &c.
Report of the agent of the Canadian
government to Viscount Monck.
I proceeded direct to Chatham, Upper Canada, and on the 22d
instant reached the Rondeau, 17 miles distant, in search of a
vessel named the Montreal, stated to be then lying there, under
the command of a Captain Whit by, who was also stated to be an
officer in the so-called confederate navy. The said vessel was
further reported to be then and there lying with sails bent
ready for sea at a moment’s notice, armed with two 24-pounder
guns, a quantity of small arms, cutlasses, and boarding pikes,
and manned with a picked crew of fifteen men, having hostile and
piratical intentions towards the United States.
In the Rondeau harbor I found a schooner called the Cataragui,
under the command of and owned by a Captain Whit by, and with
sails bent as described, but affording no further corroboration
of the story as reported. Captain Whit by is an Englishman, who
has lately purchased the Cataragui from Mr. Anglin, of Kinston.
He has never been in the so-called Confederate States at all,
and is now living with his wife and one man, a servant, on board
his vessel. Having placed myself in communication with him
immediately on my arrival, he afforded me at once every facility
for examining his vessel, to which proceeded in his company
across the ice in which she lay frozen in, at a distance of
about three-quarters of a mile from the shore. The only armament
that I could discover on board, after a diligent search, were an
old, rusty ship cannonade of about four pounds calibre, used for
signal purposes, and a double-barrelled fowling-piece. On my
return to the shore 1 was met by General Terry, who commands at
Johnston’s, island, having the 2,000 or more prisoners of war
there under his charge. Having introduced him to Captain Whit
by, the latter, at my request, took him at once on board the
schooner, as he had previously taken myself,
[Page 586]
thus enabling him to ascertain
personally the true state of the case. I saw him subsequently on
his return, and he expressed himself fully satisfied.
From Chatham I next proceeded to Port Stanley, within fifteen
miles of which place, at New creek, another vessel, called the
Saratoga, of a similar character and designs, was stated to be
lying.
A diligent search on either side of that port, and for greater
distances than that above specified as the place of her
concealment, failed in revealing to me either such a place or
vessel, and shipping masters born in that locality, who have
sailed the lakes all their lives, informed me that they had no
knowledge of any creek bearing that name on Lake Erie. The
creeks from the Rondeau eastwards until you reach Port Stanley,
a distance of about forty-five miles, are in the following
order: Big creek, Clear creek, Sixteen-Mile creek, Number-Nine
creek, Colonel Talbot’s creek, and Kettle creek, otherwise Port
Stanley. From the latter place, still following the coast line
eastward to Port Bur well, a distance of twenty-five miles, are
Silver creek, Catfish creek, or Port Bruce, and Otter creek, or
Port Burwell.
By the before-mentioned authorities I was further informed that
it was not possible to winter a vessel at any of the creeks I
have enumerated, except at the ports named, and there I saw and
examined some fifteen or more vessels, but amongst them no
Saratoga, the vessel I was in search of, nor could I find in the
shipping list of Canadian vessels navigating the upper lakes any
vessel bearing that name, although I searched it diligently for
this purpose, nor had the master mariners whom I consulted
knowledge of any such.
